


The secret in the Dark

by KittyThompson



Series: Das Geheimnis im Dunkeln [1]
Category: Bones (TV)
Genre: Dark, F/M, Kidnapping, Psychological Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 17:40:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 31,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20439920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyThompson/pseuds/KittyThompson
Summary: Translation of 'Das Geheimnis im Dunkeln'.Sorry, but my English is not good enough, to write a summary.





	The secret in the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> This is the translation of my Bones-Story 'Das Geheimnis im Dunkeln'. I am German an my English is not so good. A friend of mine (professionell translator) translated this story for me.  
With 50 Word-Pages it´s not a very long Story, but I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy reading.

The Secret in the Dark

Her eyes were studying the skull, scanning it, looking for something that wasn`t the way it should be. She didn`t find anything. And when she didn`t find anything, then there was nothing to be found. Satisfied, she put it back onto the end of the metal table and looked down at the complete skeleton. Dr. Temperance Brennan, usually called "Bones" by her friends and colleagues, was satisfied with herself. She had received a heap of bones from a grave and 'created' seven complete people out of them. They had been identified and their remains could now be released to their families. She regretted the in her eyes senseless death of those people. They had voluntarily died for ideals that were complete nonsense in the scientist`s opinion.  
Those people had been members of a religious cult, living on a farm in the mid western of the US. They had given their leader, the Guru, their money and in return they had been allowed to listen to his mental outpourings and to work on his farm for him. And sometime they had died at his command and been buried by him. Now, the Guru was sitting in jail, awaiting his trial, and the remains of his followers could be buried by their families.  
"I hope you found what you were looking for," she said quietly before averting her gaze from the skeleton and walking to her office. Being a scientist and rationally thinking person, something like this would never happen to her. Running after a guy who promised salvation and eternal life in exchange for money. In her eyes, guys like that were all frauds and the people who followed them were either naive or stupid.  
Relaxed, she fell into her chair, finished her report and then leant back, deep in thought. It didn´t happen very often, but she didn`t have anything left to do now. Her thoughts wandered over to the collection of ideas for her new novel. For a while, she skimmed the small slips of paper but she simply couldn`t completely concentrate on them.  
When her phone rang, she found herself hoping for it to be Booth, distracting her with a new case, but on the other hand she didn`t want to work again right away. Angela was right, she needed some time for herself every now and then. The persistent ringing made her thoughts shut up for a few seconds and she answered.  
"Dr. Brennan," she said.  
"Bones, it´s me."  
'Of course, who else?,' she thought. Cam or anyone else from the team would simply come to her and everyone else who wanted something notified her via mail or e-mail. "What have you got?"  
"A mass grave..."  
"...again."  
"Huh?" Booth seemed confused because usually his partner was always excited about new cases.  
"I`m sorry. I just finished putting together seven members of a cult."  
"What do you mean, put them together...?"  
"A heap of bones and no one knew how many people they once were," she explained, feeling a certain inner calm settling over her that she had only got to know after she and Booth had become friends and she had learned from him to talk after a case every now and then.  
"Oh, I see..." He fell silent, feeling a little unsure.  
A smile tugged at her lips as she imagined how he was now sitting in his office or wherever he was right now, wondering whether he could, should, dare to bother her with a new case.  
"What is it?," she therefore demanded.  
"A camp at the Mexican border. 500 people live there and the government doesn`t know whether we can keep them here or have to deport them. There has been a riot, several deaths, many injured."  
"And what does the FBI have to do with that? And, more importantly, where do I figure in?" She was confused. Surely the local officials had jurisdiction in cases like this?  
"They found bones on the terrain. And bones with ... adherences."  
"Now you sound like one of us," she said, smiling, but quickly went back to serious. "So the bones differ in age."  
"Yes. Many of them. I don`t know more yet, either."  
"Okay, let`s go." She wanted to get up.  
"Bones, wait. I can`t come with you."  
She froze mid-motion. Then she remembered the drugs ring Booth had recently bent open or whatever he called it. "When will you be finished with the case you`re working?"  
He was silent for a moment. "In a few days, I guess," he then said carefully. "Usually the culprits all get sentenced to prison and the rest is paperwork, but I just don`t want there to be any mistakes made. One wrong word in a file and some dodgy lawyer manages to bail the bosses out. We`ve spent five years working this case and many people died, including two agents I knew very well."  
"It`s okay," she said. "I do understand that you want to finish this first."  
"Thanks. I`ll come to the Jeffersonian as soon as you get the first results." He paused. "Thanks for taking over the case."  
"I always do that," she told him somewhat confused and then proceeded to let him give her the data he had so far. She decided to take Hodgins with her. He was always happy to get out of the lab for a change and she didn`t want to do all the work on her own.

Thomas Briggs, director of the reception camp for south-american refugees at the Mexican-American border, wiped the sweat off of his forehead. His hand was shaking slightly. He was 55 and up to now nothing had ever happend in his camp. His people took quick and drastic measures when something went wrong and therefore the refugees had always remained calm and had hoped and prayed. There weren`t too many other ways of killing time in the camp.  
Then there had been trouble with the drinking water, two people had died and the others wanted a resolution. He had immediatedly tried to deliver such a resolution, because in his eyes every life was worth as much as his own. However, it had taken too long for the camp inhabitants` liking. The atmosphere had become heated and then escalated. His men had given a warning and then shot with live ammunition.  
Four dead men, seven dead women, two dead children. More than 50 injured. And lots of trouble. That had been the balance sheet. Briggs sighed and ran a hand through his thinning grey hair which looked like a wig that had been pushed too far back. He`d have to talk to his deputy again about those dead children. The boy was only fourteen and might actually have participated in the riot, but the six-year-old girl had hardly done anything wrong.  
And on top of that there were the bones. Sighing, he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a woman with brunette hair was walking towards him. That had to be her. She had been announced and he had promised his full support. He wanted to keep that promise, so he smiled a slight, tentative smile.  
"You must be Dr. Brennan."  
She nodded and they shook hands. "Temperance Brennan, Jeffersonian Institute. The FBI wants me to look at the bodies found here. This is Dr. Jack Hodgins," she introduced her compagnion.  
"Thomas Briggs, I am the director of this camp. Do whatever you want and if you need anything, just let me know."  
Bones raised one eyebrow, slightly surprised by the good will. She was used to different responses. "Thank you," she said warily, not completely sure if that was the appropriate reaction. "Where were the bodies found?"  
"After the incident, several people tried to dig through the fence over there and then found the remains. Right here, behind the warehouse. We shooed them away and left everything exactly the way it was."  
"That`s good. We`ll take a look at the scene and then send everything back to Washington. You won`t have any more work with this, then." With those words she walked past him in the direction he had indicated.  
Briggs was a little taken aback by the woman`s directness, but when it came down to it she had said exactly what he had wanted to hear. Slightly calmer than before he went back to his office, where he was surprised to find his deputy. "Giorgio? What are you doing here?" He pointed at the deputy`s arm, which was bandaged and in a sling. "You`re on sick leave."  
"I heard that bones were found and wanted to know what that is all about." The man all but fell onto a chair in front of his boss`s desk.  
Briggs took a seat as well. "No clue what kinda mess this is."  
"Probably something our inmates..."  
Briggs looked at him disapprovingly. "Immigrants, Giorgio. They are immigrants, not inmates, prisoners or scum. You especially should know the difference."  
"I am an American citizen. Not my fault that my dad just had to run to El Salvador with my mother."  
"I still want you to change your tone, got it?"  
"Meh," the man made, waving dismissively with his good hand. "Whatever. They probably killed each other. I always said they didn`t run away. At least not all of them."  
Briggs pondered that. Could that really be the missing people of whose possible escape he had alerted the authorities? That wouldn`t be good. Now he was back to being worried. "I`ll be glad when those bones are gone. Hopefully that woman will hurry up. We`ve got enough to do after that riot, especially because of that dead six-year-old girl."  
"Ricochet," Giorgio mumbled.  
"That`s what I wrote down for now and I hope the investigation will have the same result." The camp director looked at his deputy menacingly. Giorgio Angeles was a very good employee, but sometimes he seemed to have a heart of ice.  
"What woman?," Georgio asked after several minutes of silence. "What woman has to hurry up with what?"  
"Some anthropologist from Washington. The FBI sent her to find out what happened to the dead. She`s said to be pretty good at her job."  
Giorgio Angeles pulled his eyebrows together slightly. "What`s her name?"  
"Dr... Brennan. Temperance Brennan." Briggs watched as his deputy quietly repeated the name. "You know her?"  
"No, no. How should I? I`ve been back in the states for all but three years and I`ve never had anything to do with something like that." His gaze seemed very interested as he slowly stood up and walked to the window. From here, he looked over to the house which kept him from seeing the part of the area where the bodies had been found. 'So it goes on,' he thought and his lips twisted into an icecold smile.

Bones and skulls, half burried in dirt. Hodgins took care of that dirt, taking pictures and samples, collecting maggots and beetles, and then looked at Bones questioningly.  
"The bones are getting younger the higher up they are. There is hardly any flesh left on the old ones, but the new ones ..." She was silent for a while. "The pelvic bones I can see are all female. We`ll have to pack them up and get them to the lab. There are simply too many of them."  
"How many do you estimate?"  
"About twenty. However, there`s a layer of dirt down there, so there could be more underneath that." She looked at him. "I know I promised you a week off, but this is important."  
Hodgins stopped her with a wave of his hand. "As usual. I`ll get the bags and sacks and make sure all of this gets to Washington. And then I`ll bring the samples to the lab. Are you staying here for a little longer?"  
"No. I`m going to wait until everything is packed and then we can fly back together. We can`t do anything here."

Collecting and wrapping the bones took several hours and happened under the sceptical watch of the guards but especially the inhabitants of the camp. One of the men had pushed Bones rather strongly, yelling at her that she was violating the remains. She had calmly explained to him that she only wanted to put the bones back together, give them back their identity and then hand them over to their families when she was sure which bones belonged to which victim. The man had not been happy but an older woman had pulled him back and given him a stern look.  
"Bring our Dira back," she had quietly asked, "so we can at least bury her." In a short conversation it had become clear that Dira was the missing granddaughter of the woman and daughter of the man.  
Shortly before sunset they were finished and Bones sat in the car next to Hodgins. She was holding a wrinkled picture of the girl missed by the old lady. Looking at it she noted that she was no more than 15 years old and Bones had already seen that some of the bones would easily fit a girl of that age. She closed her eyes and thought of Angela. Her best friend was responsible for giving the dead their faces back. She would not be happy about victims that young, as usually.  
"The way they live here ... " Hodgins` gaze wandered to the stone buildings with their small windows. Blocks of flats, four stories high, with small, dark apartments, most of which containing too many people. The sanitary conditions were horrible and no one here was even the slightest bit overweight.  
"They weren`t supposed to stay here for long," Bones murmured. "But it appears that processing the applications takes longer than initially planned."  
Hodgins rolled his eyes. "If the people doing the processing had to live here, it`d go a lot faster."  
"Or even slower because they`d all get sick due to lack of sanitaries."  
"Hey, Dr. B., that was almost humor! I have to tell Booth about this."  
She didn`t know how to respond, so she turned her head and looked out of the window. In front of the main office stood Briggs and waved at her. He seemed very relieved that she was leaving and especially about the fact that she was taking the bodies with her. For him, this case was closed and others could solve it.  
The car slowed down, then stopped, and the camp gate opened in front of them. Their driver accelerated and they passed the gate. In the fraction of the second before they left the camp, Bones saw another man come out of the office building. Dark skin, a thin beard, southern american looks, eyes as cold as ice. Her gaze met his and everyting inside her seemed to turn into ice.

"What`s up with Brennan?," Angela asked as she stepped up to her colleague.  
Hodgins shrugged. "Not sure. There`s nothing extraordinary about this case that would explain her mood but since we left the camp she`s been this quiet."  
"She is pale and seems distracted."  
"Our delivery should arrive any minute now." He leaned against the railing of the stairs on which he stood. "That will give her something to do."  
Angela kept watching her friend with a worried expression on her face. "I haven`t seen her like this in ... well, ever, I think."  
"She didn`t utter a single word on the whole flight back. One moment she`s making jokes about slow and weak officials and the next she`s sitting next to me, all pale and not saying a single word."  
"Jokes? Tempe?"  
Hodgins nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. It was a rather mean comment, at least for her."  
"I see." Angela grumbled something under her breath. "What do you mean, 'not a single word'? The trip from the camp to Washington took several hours."  
"Not a word. I swear on all the gods I don`t believe in."  
"You can only swear on things you do believe in," Angela told him.  
He looked around. "Then I`ll swear on that jar of beetles up there." A smile flashed across his face but quickly disappeared. "This is gonna be a tough case, Ange. The bones we found belong to many people and, unfortunately, many of them were not yet off age."  
The woman gave a pained "Mmmm" and lowered her gaze. "I hate my work."  
Hodgins looked at her with a hint of regret and handed her the photograph of Dira. "Her grandmother is waiting to bury her. Do it for Dira. Find her."  
Angela took the picture of the girl and looked at it. Then she put it in one of her pokets. "Okay, I´ll do my best."  
A door was pushed open and several men carrying metal boxes entered the lab. "Our bones are there," Bones called across the room and went to meet them. Only moments ago she had been lost in thought, but now she suddenly seemed energized and thirsty for action. Hodgins gladly let himself get swept up by that but Brennan`s behavior gave Angela the creeps and she promised herself she would talk to Bones about what she had seen and experienced at the camp later.

Agent Seeley Booth entered the lab with long strides. He was tired, having spent days brooding over old case files, but since he had trust that new case upon Bones and her team, he finally had to ask about the findings. The remains of the victims had been in Washington for 24 hours now, maybe there were already any new results.  
In the lab, he was met by the old familiar scene. Bones and Zack were bent over an already reassembled body, Hodgins at a microscope and Angela was standing in the background, drawing something. And watching Bones worriedly. Booth shook his head in confusion and followed her gaze. Bones didn`t look like anyone had to worry about her. Actually, she looked just as busy as she always did when she had something to do in the lab.  
"Hey, Bones. Got anything new?"  
When she raised her gaze and looked at him, he also started to worry. He knew this look on her face. Knew it from moments that were quickly followed by her saying: "I don`t want to talk about this now".  
"Is everything alright?"  
"Of course. It`s been a long and very exhausting day, that`s all. We don`t have much. All victims were shot, one bullet to the forehead. They were all female, aged between 14 and 27 and pregnant."  
Booth`s eyes widened in shock. "Pregnant? Even the children?"  
"Yes," she said and something flickered in her eyes. "Even the children. I know guessing is usually your thing, but look for the rapist and you will find your killer."  
"Woah woah woah ... slow down, Bones. Who says that those were rapes?"  
"There are children among the victims." She seemed indignant.  
"It may not be sensible or good, but even 14-year-olds have sex and some of them get pregnant." He leaned against the railing and looked at the many tables, on each of which lay one victim. "These are all?"  
"No. These are six of at least 37. We haven`t finished sorting the bones yet. It is very complicated." She rubbed her eyes. "And I am tired of this now. I`ll go lie down in my office for a while." And with that she turned around and left.  
The agent looked after her in confusion. Then he looked at Angeal, who was just approaching him. "What`s up with her?"  
"I have no idea. She has been acting weird since she was at the camp."  
"It must be hard, having so many young girls here ..."  
"No, no, that´s not it. Of course what happened doesn`t leave her cold, but she`s used to that. That`s her job." Angela leaned against the railing next to him. "She is completely confused. But I´ll find out what`s going on."  
"What do you mean?"  
Angela waved her hand. "Woman-to-woman talk. I`ll simply talk to her."  
"Good luck. How far are you with the faces?"  
She showed him the four pictures she had already finished. "The poor women. They came here to find their happiness or because they were in danger in their home countries, and then ..."  
Booth carefully put a hand on her shoulder. "Yes. And then some dirtbag comes and kills them after raping them and getting them pregnant."  
"What? I thought you thought it was too early to jump to conclusions."  
"Of course. When Bones does the jumping. But, to be honest, I agree with her. And it makes me damn angry." He looked at her and stiffled a yawn. "I`ll go home now and get some sleep."  
"Do that. I`ll go check on Bones, see if she wants something to eat, and then follow your example. See you tomorrow?"  
"I don´t know yet. My case will probably take some more time and right now it looks like you guys don´t have anythng to go on, either. But I`d like to take Bones with me when I drive back to the camp to investigate." He left and Angela went into the kitchenette to find some food for her best friend, who liked to forget about minor matters like that.

Darkness. Black, absolute darkness. You could see it and somehow even hear it. It seemed to press down on her body as she tried to loosen the restraints around her wrists.  
Bones groaned and shook her head. The memory grew hazy. She realized she was rubbing her wrists, where the scar was still visible. That`s how deep her injuries had been. She smiled sadly. The tiny scar was nothing in comparison to those that had been left on her soul. The good thing about both was that they were invisible to other people. Almost invisible. Angela had noticed something. Bones had seen her constant worried glances. But if she were to tell her the reason for ... no. She was a strong person, perfectly capable of dealing with her problems all on her own. Even Angela could not help with that. Why should she? It was such a long time ago. It was over. Actually, she had almost forgotten about it.  
Until they had left the camp this afternoon. Until she had seen him again. Although she had only seen him in dim light back then and only once in direct daylight, she had recognized him immediately. It was his eyes. This ice cold look in them. She balled her hands into fists as the fear of that image threatened to overwhelm her. She fought it back with all her power, but could not keep herself from thinking: "Did these women and girls have to die with one last look into those cold eyes?"  
A quiet knock pulled her from her thoughts. Angela entered the room, carrying food and looking worried. "Sweetie, what`s going on?"  
Bones looked at her in confusion. "Nothing. Why would you think there was something going on?"  
After putting the food down on the table, she sat on the couch. "You are ... crying."  
Hastily, the anthropologist wiped her face. "I`m just tired ..."  
"If you don`t want to talk, that`s okay. But don`t lie to my face, okay?"  
"Okay." She quietly took some of the sushi Angela had organized for her and bit into it. "I`m sorry."  
Angela ate, too, but her eyes remained fixed on her friend. "I`m worried about you. You solve a difficult case, much to everyone`s satisfaction. You take on a new case, dig up lots of skeletons, bring them here and we reassemble them. We managed to positively identify four people after only one day. The Bones I know would be tired at worst in such a situation, but she would definitely be pleased with herself."  
"I don`t want to talk about it," she mumbled.  
"And you don`t have to. No one is forcing you. But I won`t keep silent while I`ve got questions. You know that." She smiled disarmingly when Bones looked at her in annoyance. "Come on, Tempe, tell me what`s going on. What did you see at the camp that threw you for a loop like this?"  
Silence, only interrupted by the rustling of the wrapping when one of the women reached for another piece of sushi. When the food was gone, Bones stood and went for the door to drive home and escape Angela`s questions and curious looks.  
"You can always talk to me."  
"I know that, Angela. I know." With that parting comment she closed the door behind her.

In the following days, Bones and her team worked hard to identify one skeleton after the next. They made very good progress, only the remains of Dira - of all people - caused problems. The left index finger was missing.  
"Maybe you missed it," Zack said. Then he realized what he had said and he quickly added: "Which of course would never happen because you always work very carefully."  
"Well learned how to kiss ass," Hodgins said and patted his shoulder. The expression on Zack`s face changed to one of confusion.  
"With a teacher like that he had to improve," Booth interjected, who had been walking around the lab for an hour without asking any concrete questions.  
"I never kiss ass," Hodgins defended himself. "I work with slimy stuff. There`s a difference."  
"We`ve got a crime victim here. Could we maybe take the jokes elsewhere?," Bones snapped at them both.  
The three men looked at her in surprise. Booth went to stand next to her and lowered his voice. "I`m sorry, but you know how we are. Just because we tease each other doesn`t mean we respect the dead any less." He lowered his head a little to be able to look into her face. She was pale and there were dark shadows beneath her eyes.  
And she was very irritable. "Don´t look at me like that."  
Although he was not used to her behaving this way, he knew how to bring Doctor Temperance Brennan back down to earth. "Do you have any new information for me?"  
She took a deep breath. "We were able to identify 35 people and complete the cleaned skeletons. All female and all were killed by a shot to the forehead. The gun was held to their heads in a downwards angle. They were all pregnant. They were abused, had broken bones, mostly fractures of the ribs and extremities."  
"Extre... oh, right, you mean their arms and legs."  
"Toes and fingers, the bones in their hands and feet. We were able to attribute the fetal bones to the mothers. There are only two victims we don`t know the names of yet and they`re also the oldest ones. They have been lying there for approximately two and a half years."  
"And when was the last victim killed?"  
Hodgins pointed at a few maggots in a jar. "About four months ago."  
Booth turned to Angela. "How far are you with the faces? How were you able to match the names?"  
She handed him a pile of paper. "I drew twenty of them and now I need a break. Sorry." She reached for a cup of coffee and sat down.  
"Briggs, the director of the camp, talked to the people who were missing loved ones. In the past three years 74 people disappeared altogether. 37 of those were women. Those were the bones we found. According to him, the men, mostly brothers, fathers or other relatives of the women, fled. He supposes they killed the women themselves because they saw them as a burden if they were to take them with them."  
"That´s bullshit." Booth shook his head. "I bet he doesn`t believe that himself."  
"He is the kind of guy who likes to stick his head in the sand and not notice anything." Hodgins handed Booth a file they had compiled especially for the agent because he was so busy with his drug dealers. "We collected some information on the camp and he seems to be very restrained and leave the dirty work to his right hand, Giorgio Angeles."  
Something rattled and burst into pieces on the floor. A cup of coffee. Bones looked down at the shards, then to her shaking hand. With a start, she turned around and disappeared into her office. "I have to go check on something," she called over her shoulder.  
"Err ... where was I?" Hodgins was leaving through the file as Angela cleaned up the mess. "Apparently, the deputy used to work as a police chief in a small village in South America."  
"Yes, we found that out, too." Booth waved a dismissive hand. "The guy used to live in El Salvador after his his father moved to his mother`s home country. He was suspected of working with the death squads but nothing could ever be proven. And apparently no one was really interested in prosecuting him for that, anyways. He is known as a sadist and absolutely void of emotion."  
"Maybe he ..." Angela pointed at the remains.  
"Quite possibly. I definitely think he is capable of it, but so far we don`t have any evidence. Keep looking."  
"I`ll go an talk to Bones, first." She looked at the agent. "Or do you want to ..."  
"No, I`ll leave you to it. Unfortunately, I`ve got an appointment." Booth felt bad about it but he had to return to the FBI HQ for an interrogation. His gaze landed on the glass door of Bones` office. He could see her back. She was sitting on the couch, her head propped up on her hands. "I`ll be back as soon as possible."

The stinky sack on her head, the hands of the men who were dragging her away, out of the bright sunlight and into the deep blackness of the dark cell. When the sack was pulled off of her head, she felt the intense wish to have it back. That way she could have at least told herself the darkness was only due to the fabric covering her eyes and not the room surrounding her.  
She pressed her hands to her face, but this time she could not stop the tears. Sobbing, she slumped onto the couch, heard someone open the door and wished with all her heart that it was not Booth. She could not talk to him about this.  
"Hey sweetie ...," Angela said and crouched next to her.  
Bones sighed with relief when she felt the soft hand of her friend on her cheek, which was wet with tears. She gasped for air and then slowly regained her composure. "I`m alright," she said in a weak attempt to somehow get out of this conversation.  
"What`s going on?" Angela poured a glass of water and handed it to her.  
"Thanks. It`s just this case. It somehow gets to me." She fell silent and lowered her head when she noticed the disapproving frown of her best friend who was now sitting down next to her.  
"What on earth did you see in that camp?"  
"I ..." She kept quiet. Talking was not her thing. Showing weakness was not her thing. Usually, she could cope with everything just fine. "It`s just ..." But then again, Angela knew the story already, so she would understand. "I have ... in the camp..." She paused and raised her eyes. "He`s at the camp. The man I once told you about."  
Angela was confused. Okay, so that happened a lot when Bones talked, but she had a feeling she was supposed to understand this right here and now before her friend changed her mind. She thought about when exactly Bones had fled earlier. The Name Giorgio Angeles had been mentioned. The deputy director of the camp. But the name didn`t trigger anything. Angela was sure that she had never heard it before. She did not know anyone from El Salvador, anyways ... "El Salvador," she murmured. Then her eyes widened in shock. "You mean that dirtbag from El Salvador? The cop who tried to stop you in your investigation? Who locked you up for three days?"  
Bones nodded. "Yes. He is the deputy of the camp director. Can you imagine that?"  
"My god, Tempe ..." She wrapped her arms around her friend and held her close. Bones was shaking ever so slightly. "That must have been a shock when you saw him again."  
"Yes," Bones whispered, nodding. "I thought, I ... Angela, I`m scared. I am still scared of this man. Sometimes I dream about him and about ... my time in the dark cell."  
"You told me he threatened to kill you."  
"Yes. He came in, stood in front of me, pulled his gun and held it in front of me. He wanted to shoot me and then just dump me." Once more tears were running down her face. "He swore that no one would ever find me. After three days, they pulled a sack over my head, took me out of there and threw me out of the car without stopping. After I freed myself, I realized I was close to a small village. I borrowed a car, drove to the airport and flew away. I never went back and I never finished my work there." Still lying in Angela`s arms, she gasped for air and realized how good it felt to talk openly.  
"I`m so sorry about all of this, sweetie. But why haven`t you told Booth about it?"  
"Because he overreacts when it is about me. Imagine I told him I was hit and psychologically tortured by this man. He would want revenge. And he would lose his objectivity in the case."  
Angela nodded and looked at Bones firmly. "It`s not the desire for revenge that rubs you the wrong way, right? It`s the person. You want to take revenge, go the whole hog. You want to convict him, preferably on your own. Lock him up, too."  
She nodded slowly. "Yes. I don`t want Booth to get involved in this. This is personal."  
"But Tempe, what if he is the killer we are looking for? You keep him safe by keeping silent."  
"If he is the killer, which I don`t doubt, then we will convict him with unrelated evidence and Booth can arrest him. What happened between me and this man a few years ago doesn`t have anything to do with this." Bones looked at Angela urgently. "You have to swear to me that you won`t tell Booth. Please."  
She fought with herself for a moment, but then nodded. "Okay," she sighed. "I will keep this to myself and you keep away from the camp, no matter what. Deal?"  
"Deal." Bones hugged her. "Thank you."  
"I`m always here for you. You can always talk to me about anything, understood?"  
She nodded. "Yes. I finally understood that."  
Angela was not completely convinced and nudged her side with a smile. "Let`s see how long it will stay that way." She wiped one last tear off of Bones` face. "I`ll go and take a break now before I get any lasting damage. I`m sorry, Tempe, but the faces of the dead are already following me in my dreams." She hesitated. "That`s alright with you, isn`t it?"  
"It`s okay. I talked it out now and I`ll cope, don`t worry. And as far as the case is concerned, we won`t make progress quickly. We told Briggs there were no clues at the moment and still need a few weeks to identify the victims. Therefore, the killer should feel safe and not do anything stupid."  
Angela stood up and went to the door. "Hopefully he doesn`t feel safe enough to continue killing."

"This is everything we`ve got." Bones looked at Booth apologetically as she handed him the files she had compiled for the FBI over the course of the past few days.  
Hastily, he waved a dismissive hand. "This is great. I can use this to summon those responsible and raise a real stink."  
"Raise a stink?," she asked in confusion.  
"Grill them, put them under pressure. You know what I mean."  
A smile flittered across her face. "Yes, but it is always very amusing when you think I don`t."  
"Hear hear, I`m amusing." Hodgins, Zack and Angela nodded enthusiastically. Booth had to laugh as well. "Can I talk to you in your office for a moment?," he asked Bones.  
"Of course." She went ahead and sat down behind her desk. "And yes, I`m fine."  
Booth closed the door and looked at his part-time colleague. "Are you sure?"  
"Yes," she confirmed. "I had a talk with Angela ..."  
"... which she refused to tell me anything about ..."  
"... and now everything is fine again. I simply had a couple of bad days. That happens to me, too, every now and then." She looked at him pleadingly.  
He understood and nodded. "Okay, I`ll stop pushing. What I actually wanted to talk to you about was my case. The other one, I mean. I`ll be pretty busy with interrogations over the next few days because some of the right hands of the drug ring bosses apparently want to send their bosses to their doom. I`ve been waiting for this for quite some time. So, what I`m trying to say is that I´ll have to pull back from this case here once more. But after that I`ll be one hundred percent available, I promise."  
She nodded and lowered her gaze. "Okay. As you could see we finally managed to reassemble all the bodies. Except for the one they are all complete. We are missing the left index finger of the girl, though."  
"Dira`s, of all people." Booth looked at her in sympathy. "I know how much you want to give especially her remains back to her family."  
"She is the only one whose grandmother looked me in the eyes and made me make her a promise." Bones pressed her lips into a thin line. "She hasn`t been dead for long, half a year at best. Booth, I have to bring her back whole."  
"And you are absolutely sure that the finger was removed only shortly before her death?"  
"Do you want me to repeat Zack`s complete explanation ..."  
"No, no, no, please don`t!" The agent raised his hands in defeat. "I retract my question."  
Bones smiled slighty. "We`re not at court."  
"But the killer will end up exactly there. What a bastard. What he did to those women ... I am absolutely sure it was one - maybe several - of the guards. I just don`t understand why the men at the camp didn`t raise hell when their daughters, wives and sisters disappeared."  
"Look at the lists of missing persons. Those are exactly the men who also disappeared without a trace."  
"So you think they are dead, too?"  
"I don`t know, Booth. Speculation is your area of expertise. If they are dead, we have not yet found them and no one will give us permission to dig up the whole camp. We need more evidence for that. And the dead won`t give us any."  
"According to the director of the camp, those people ran away." Deep in thought, Booth leaved through the pictures of the missing men. "The women were killed, the men disappeared without a trace. What kind of devil is striking terror in this camp?" Angrily, he slammed the file onto the desk.  
Bones had already opened her mouth but then closed it again. Instead of giving voice to her fears concerning a certain man, she only said: "Together, we will get him or her soon."  
"Like we always do." Booth nodded at her encouragingly. "Like always. Will you accompany me to the camp when I start the official investigation there?"  
She shrugged. "That depends on whether or not I`ve got something important to do here. If I don`t, I`ll come with you."  
Booth nodded, feeling slightly confused. It wasn`t that he didn`t like having Bones accompany him in the field. But somehow he had thought she would desperately try to find an excuse not to go back to the camp. He had the distinct feeling that something there scared her. Maybe he had only imagined it. Subconsciously, he shrugged his shoulders. No matter what she was afraid of, he would protect her. "I have to go now. I´ll see you in a few days, okay? Maybe Angela will have recovered by then and we`ll have names for all of the dead."  
"She needs a few days of rest."  
"Then why is she here today?" He pointed outside.  
"She wanted to talk me into taking a few days off, too, to relax, but I can`t do that right now."  
"That hardly ever works with you ..."  
"Are you blaming me now because I`m doing all the dirty work for you?," she snapped at him and jumped up.  
He stared at her, slack-jawed. "Hey, hey, hey," he said, raising his hands defensively. "That`s now how I meant it and you know that." Slowly, he approached her, carefully putting his hands onto her upper arms, always ready to jump back in case she lost it. Physically, she was very strong, he had seen that often enough. And a little caution was always advisable. But she didn`t do anything, simply stood there and glared at him. Her eyes were not sparkling with anger as one might have expected, though. There was something else in them. Grief, fear. And a sea of tears.  
"Bones ..."  
"No," she whispered, swallowing forcibly.  
"I ..." He hesitated, then pulled her into his arms even though she tried to fight him for a moment. "I won`t ask any questions," he promised. "I swear, I won`t ask questions." He pushed two fingers beneath her chin and forced her to raise her head a little. He looked into her eyes, saw the tear slide from the corner of her eye and down her cheek. "Come on, Temperance. Just get it all out." His voice was quiet, only a whisper, but it was enough. "I won`t ask why."  
Sobbing, she fell into his arms, clinging to him. Her whole body was shaking. If he had not made this promise, she would have never let go like this. She would have sent him away and pushed down her feelings with common sense. But he had promised not to ask any questions.  
And so he stood there, helplessly, holding her tight, hearing her sobs, feeling her tears wet his shirt and burn on his skin like acid. He felt his own eyes burning, wanted to help her somehow. But how was he supposed to do that when he didn´t even know what was going on? Maybe she really was overworked and had to get it all out for a change? Maybe ... he closed his eyes. Maybe he should stop speculating.  
"I am ..."  
"No, don`t." She looked at him again. For how long had she been lying in his arms, crying? Five minutes, ten? Definitely several. "Don`t apologize. I won`t ask any questions and you won`t be ashamed for showing your emotions. Deal?" He wiped the tear tracks from her cheeks with impossible gentleness when she nodded slowly. "When this case is over, I`ll take you out for dinner, okay? We can talk about the weather or your latest book or ... whatever. But we will have dinner."  
She nodded. "Okay."  
He smiled and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before letting go of her. "I`ll leave now and get back to my case."  
"Yes. I`ll go home and sleep. And then I`ll give the victims their names back and see to it that we finally get some real evidence." Booth was already moving towards the door when she stopped him. "Thank you." Smiling, he nodded at her and left.

She had driven home and tried to sleep, but it didn`t work. The case wouldn`t leave her head, along with the fears that had resurfaced. Actually, she tried to tell herself, nothing had happened. Sure, the man had kept her prisoner and consciously played with her fears. He had put her under psychological pressure, had made her feel scared, had made her realize how helpless she was. But she didn`t understand why she was reacting so strongly to it and why she was so scared of this man. He was in Texas, far away. And if she crossed paths with him in the camp, he could not hurt her. There were other people there. And she would not go there on her own. Booth would come with her, maybe even Hodgins. She had been alone back then, yes. But now she wasn`t anymore.  
Angrily, she got up. What on earth was she so afraid of? It was over. Nothing much had happened to her back then, except for a few bruises and scratches, the injuries caused by the restraints and the many sleepless nights. And now everyone was worried about her. Zack and Hodgins took over her work. Angela kept hovering around her all the time. And now Booth. Of course it had felt incredibly good to just let herself go for a moment. Especially once he had promised not to ask about it. He understood her well, better than any other man before him. He was also the best friend she had who did not want anything from her. At least not openly. She knew she could talk to him, but she didn´t want him getting into any trouble. And he would. Maybe she really would talk to him. Once the case was over. When they were having dinner together.  
Slowly, she lay back down in her bed, pulling the covers up and closing her eyes. In her mind, she could see an image forming. A small restaurant, a candle on the table. Behind it was the face of a man. Booth. He was smiling at her, listening to her talk, laughing every now and then. She could hear his voice without understanding the words he said. His voice filled her, calming her thoughts and emotions. Slowly, she drifted off to sleep.

Following the breakdown in her office, Bones had gotten a grip again. And not just that. She was now building up anger towards the man who had tortured her and was now happily walking through that camp and probably a mass murderer. And all this anger was put into her work.  
"Why didn`t we see that bone? Hodgins?"  
"We didn`t see it because it wasn`t there."  
"It can`t just disappear. It has to be somewhere and we need to find it. I`ll go book the flights."  
Hodgins perked up. "Can I come? Please?"  
"I just told you: I`ll book the flights. Plural. Booth can`t come with us anyways." And she didn`t want to go on her own. "But I won`t stop digging up this camp until I find this finger. Booth left me an FBI document allowing us to look everywhere. And Mr Briggs does not appear to want to put obstacles in our way."  
"What about the relatives?," Zack asked. "They might cause trouble."  
"We have a list of missing persons who lived in the camp and one of identified victims, so we can tell them exactly who we`ve got and who we might have and whom we don`t. I think that`s exactly what they want." Bones looked at Zack and Hodgins. "I don`t want you to tell Booth or Angela what we`re planning to do. Booth has to finally close his case and Angela needs a few days rest. And we don`t need them there, anyways. They would only be in our way."  
Hodgins sat up straight. "Is this something illegal?" His eyes were sparkling with excitement.  
"No," Bones said and looked at him chastisingly. "It`s just something ... amicable." With that, she turned and left.  
"Something amicable? I don´t understand." Zack scratched his temple. "What does she mean?"  
"She doesn`t want to involve Angela and Booth in this."  
"In what? The case? This is Booth`s case and we need Angela for the final identification."  
"I`m not sure in what exactly, but she is hiding something. Doesn`t matter. She is the boss and what do the two of us do when she tells us to keep silent?"  
Zack nodded. "We zip it."  
"Good boy." Hodgins patted his shoulder. "You`ll keep watch over the remains and I`ll drive home now."

The very next day, Bones was standing in Thomas Briggs` office. He didn`t seem happy to have her here again. When he heard what exactly she was looking for, he reacted slightly annoyed.  
"You want to find a finger in this camp? Are you insane?"  
"Not that I am aware of. Mr Briggs, I need this finger."  
"But you yourself opened the grave and emptied it completely." The man looked at her provocatively. "Did you miss something?"  
"We almost never miss anything." Bones looked at him. "And you? Did you miss something?"  
"Now wait a minute! Those women weren`t raped and shot in public, you know? You can`t ascribe that to me! I didn`t know anything about this shit and I would not have allowed it."  
"Then help me, please. I want to collect facts and hand them over to the FBI. And I need the bones so the victims` relatives can get closure."  
Briggs nodded in understanding. "Fine. Look around but watch your back. The people here are very sceptical. And I can`t protect you all the time."  
She looked outside. Several inhabitants of the camp were standing around and seemed to wait for her. "We`ll be fine, don`t worry."  
"I could order my deputy to help you ..."  
"No," Bones said slightly louder than she had intended to. She took a deep breath and smiled. "I`m sure he has other things to do. Just let me talk to these people and then we`ll see."  
Briggs shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, Dr. Brennan. As you wish."  
Bones stepped outside and found herself facing a group of at least twenty men who looked at her questioningly. Among them was Dira`s father. Bones noticed a bandage around his leg and tried to remember if he had already had that injury a few days ago. "We were able to identify most of the bodies we found. The FBI will take over the investigation and solve these murders and we will match the other names as well and then return the remains to you." Most of the men nodded weakly. "I am sorry that we have not yet identified everyone."  
Some of them left wordlessly, which didn`t surprise Bones at all. She had not expected them to thank her and was glad that no one was causing trouble. Dira`s father approached her. "What about Dira? What was done to her?"  
Bones hesitated. Of course she could tell him all the cruel facts but Booth had taught her a "sense of tact". "She was abused over a longer period of time, pregnant and was killed with a shot to the head." To her surprise, the man did not react angry to this information but only lowered his head and disappeared.  
She watched him go in confusion as Hodgins stepped up next to her. "I thought he`d lose it and swear vengeance or something."  
"Me too. But mostly I thought he was going to ask who did it, ask for facts. But nothing." She frowned slightly. "That is rather strange."  
Hodgins shrugged. "That`s Booth`s problem. We give him the facts, he finds and convicts the killer."  
"Exactly. Let`s get to work."  
Together they went back to the place where the bones had been found. Someone had covered the hole and Hodgins pulled the wooden panel aside. They spent some time looking for the missing finger but it was nowhere to be found.  
"Some of the soil fell back into the hole. Amateurs." Hodgins dug around the dirt for a while, but they had been very thorough the first time around and therefore did not expect to find anything in the first place.  
"I don`t think the finger is here, Hodgins," Bones finally said. "Let`s stop here and look around the area. The murders must have happened somewhere nearby. I doubt the killer or killers carried the bodies through the whole camp. Maybe we will find a clue to the finger`s whereabouts when we find the crime scene."  
"Did you ever think that maybe the killer kept the finger as some sort of trophy?"  
Bones looked at him. "The girl died somewhere between the other victims. She was neither the first nor the last. Not the oldest or the youngest. Just one of many. Why should he keep one of her fingers and not one of the others`?"  
Hodgins thought about it, then shrugged again. "That`s why you are the boss and I am the one with the three doctorates, digging in the dirt." With a grin, he disappeared in the direction of one of the storage rooms.  
Bones looked around, feeling uncertain. She felt the strong urge to follow Hodgins, but that wish was completely senseless. He knew what he had to do and by separating they could cover a far bigger area. Therefore, she did not give in to the uncertainty and instead started searching in another storage space.  
There was not much to be seen here, though. Old pallets, grout that had fallen from the ceiling. Ropes, laths. A row of sacks against one of the walls. The small windows were blind and the light in the room was dim, getting gloomier the closer she came to the back wall. A rat scurried past Bones, squeaking quietly and disappearing outside. Bones was surprised. Where did the animal come from and what had it been doing here? There did not appear to be any food residues or something similar on the floor.  
Her scientific curiousity was awoken, replacing her insecurity. Bones took her flashlight and lighted behind the sacks but there was nothing but dust and dirt and ... drag marks. She pushed two sacks aside and found a metal hatch in the floor. She managed to open it with some difficulty. A gaping abyss was right in front of her, dark and threatening. A ladder was leaning against one of the walls, leading down. She hesitated, wanted to go and get Hodgins, but then she shook her head.  
"I am not afraid. Whatever of? I have done way scarier things than searching a cellar," she whispered. "Get a grip, Temperance." She simply couldn`t understand her fear. This wasn`t like her at all. And she did not believe in things such as foreboding.  
Slowly she climbed down the steps and found herself standing in a dark hallway. The floor was grubby and damp and to the left and right of the hallway were old prison cells. Most of the doors were open.

"So this is where it happened." Bones felt her heart leap to her throat. There was a thin sheet of sweat on her forehead as she continued walking and threw a quick glance into every cell. In one of them she finally found what she was looking for.  
Rust brown dried blood on the floor and walls and a severed finger lying next to the door. Bones carefully put it into an evidence bag. She realized her hands were shaking. The beam of her flashlight was moving across the wall in erratic patterns. The air down here stank horribly and her blouse was clinging to her body. She wanted to get out of here. Get out and call Booth. The FBI crime scene investigators could maybe find something else down here. Slowly, she drew her phone out of her pocket, but of course she had no signal down here.  
Bones felt panic rising in her chest as she realized how utterly alone she was down here. Her breath came in gasps and she was feeling claustrophobic. It was so dark here, no windows anywhere. It was just like back then ... She groaned and stood, ready to leave this place and inform Booth. He had to come here and secure the evidence before the killer vanished his traces. That was exactly why she needed him here. Not because she was afraid.  
With shaking hands, she shoved the evidence found into the pocket of the light jacket she was wearing, turned around ... and froze. She was looking into the barrell of a gun, but that was not even the worst part. The worst part were the eyes of the man holding the gun.  
"Do you remember me?," the man asked, taking a step towards Bones. She backed away. "Oh yes, you remember. Dr. Brennan ... the famous anthropologist." His gaze darkened. "I already warned you back then not to get in my way. And I actually thought the warning had been sufficient. But no ... you have to get involved all over again."  
Bones wanted to say something, defend herself somehow, run away, but she couldn`t. Her only hope was Hodgins, but in her mind she was begging Booth to help her. But Booth was not here. He was incredibly far away.  
"Turn around." She remained where she was. "I told you to turn around," he hissed, reached back and hit her in the jaw with the stock of his gun.  
Moaning in pain she fell to her knees and crawled around to face the back wall, shaking violently. She wanted to push herself off the ground but the man hissed at her to remain sitting. Her eyes wide open in fear, she remained on her knees and listened behind her. Giorgio pressed his gun to the back of her head.  
"Don`t worry, little doctor. I won`t shoot you. Not like this. You know I like to look my victims in the eyes. They died right here in this very cell. All of them." He snatched her phone out of her hand and stepped on it.  
"Why?," she managed, still shaking. "Why did you kill them?"  
"I`ll tell you in the coming days. Or weeks. Or months." He laughed raunchily. "Depending on how long you manage to stick it out."  
His words sent a chill down Bones` back. This man didn`t want to kill her and he also didn´t want to let her go. He would keep her. Just like he had back then. Only this time he could not let her go. This time ...  
She felt the pressure of the gun against the back of her head disappear. In the same moment, Giorgio pressed a piece of cloth to her mouth and nose. Instinctively, she reached for his arm, tried to defend herself that way, but she couldn`t. Fear paralized her, made her act slower than usual, weaker. She buried her nails in his arm, ripping the skin open where his shirt had ridden up. The sweet scent coming from the cloth made her feel dizzy and sent her into unconsciousness.

Giorgio Angeles looked down at the lifeless woman. A dark grin twisted his lips as he rolled her onto her stomach and bound her arms with cable ties. Then he carried his victim down the long hallway and farther, beneath the fence and around a long curve to an exit. They ended up in an old shed to the south of the camp. You couldn`t see it from here, though, because a large rock was in the way. He put her into a wooden crate and closed and locked the lid.  
"You can scream in here until your lungs burst, honey. No one will hear you. And tonight I will bring you across the border and into your new home." He heaved a heavy sack onto the lid for good measure and then quickly returned to the camp before anyone could accidentally stumble upon his secret passage.

"Hey! Hey you!"  
Giorgio looked around and saw the assistant of his prisoner. "Yes, please?," he asked politely.  
"Have you seen Dr. Brennan?"  
"I haven`t, I`m sorry." He looked around and inconspiciously tugged the sleeve of his shirt down to hide the fresh scratch marks on his arm. "I was taking a break for a few minutes, please don`t rat me out."  
The man nodded. "No no, don`t worry." He looked around. "Where the hell is she? I thought I had seen her go in there." He threw a glance into the storage room, but saw nothing suspicious.  
"Would you like me to help you search for her?"  
"That would be nice. I`ll go check Briggs` office. Maybe you could look around outside? You know the camp better than I do." He left.  
"Of course I know the camp. That`s why you won`t ever see through my game. The little doctor did, yes. But not you people." His gaze followed the other man as he disappeared inside the adminstrative building. With a grin, he went for a stroll through the camp and asked the people there whether they had maybe seen the anthropologist.

Bones had no idea for how long she had been unconscious, but when she woke she wished it had been for longer. She was lying in a narrow wooden crate that luckly had small gaps between the boards so at least there was some light. Even though she felt incredibly weak, she tried kicking the boards with her feet. Soon she had to realize how useless this was. The crate was very sturdy and there was something heavy on the lid. She moaned lowly as her dizzy mind got a little clearer and started sending pain stimuli, especially coming from her tightly bound wrists.  
She shifted onto her side, which did not sit well with her shoulder but was a lot better for her ams. She listened intently but there was nothing to be heard. She had no idea where the man had taken her but she knew one thing for sure: She was no longer inside the camp and only several minutes in a car separated her from the Mexican border. That was not a good combination of circumstances for her. If the guy managed to cross the border with her, the American authorities in general and Booth especially would have trouble finding her.  
"Help!," she called, a little timid for her own tastes. But she had no hopes of anyone hearing her anyways. This man was not that stupid, after all. "Help." This time she was a little louder. Maybe chance would intervene. She had no idea where she was and who might have happened to come across the area in which she was being kept prisoner. She summoned all her strength and yelled once more.  
Her voice penetrated the wooden crate, drifted out of the open window of the small shed, out over the ochre-colored plain behind the camp, got quieter and quieter and finally got lost in the early-evening dusk that slowly spread across the land.

Hodgins had spent two hours looking for Bones. Then he knew for certain that something was wrong. She wasn`t answering her mobile, or, more accurately, it was switched off. No one had seen her and there was no trace of her. All the guards were looking for the woman, even some of the inhabitants of the camp were helping because in their eyes, Bones was working for them and their loved ones. But no one found anything. Hodgins` mobile rang and he answered. It was Booth. "Bones has gone missing."  
There was a moment of silence, then the agent asked: "What?"  
"Come on, it was neither vague nor hard to understand this time. Bones is gone. We were here in the camp, looking for the finger. We split up and now she`s gone."  
"Maybe ..."  
"Booth, she is gone. Her phone was switched off. I haven`t seen her in three hours. You know her. She doesn`t simply disappear." Hodgins was really anxious. His eyes kept skitting across the now rather dark landscape behind the camp.  
"Okay, okay. Stay in the camp. I`ll be there soon."  
"No way. I can`t do anything here. I need to get back to the lab. Her disappearance has something to do with this case. She must have found something we missed. I have to find it."  
"Hodgins," Booth tried to calm the other man down. "Stay in the camp. I need a liaison. No one there will talk to me."  
The man took a deep breath and leaned against the fence. "Okay. Okay. I got a grip now. Please hurry. I have a bad feeling about this."  
He felt a little better after the call. Hodgins felt incredibly guilty because he had not looked out for Bones. But then again she had never needed someone to protect her. He called Zack, who reacted with audible edginess to Bones` disappearance and then informed Goodman. When he heard that Booth had gotten involved in the matter, he felt reassured. "He`ll find her. He always found her. Hodgins, I want you to help him. Do whatever he tells you to and then come back to the Jeffersonian. We have to finish our work. Maybe we`ll find some clues we have not discovered yet."  
Finally, he dialled Angela`s number but she didn`t answer and he didn`t want to leave a message, he simply couldn`t. Bones was Angela`s best friend and somehow Hodgins was glad that he had not reached her.  
"Hey, man." The deputy director of the camp approached him. "Sorry we haven`t found her yet, but I`m calling it a day. It`s getting dark so we can`t do anything, anyways. We`ll continue searching for her tomorrow morning, as soon as the sun comes up."  
"Thank you, Mr Angeles."  
"You are welcome." He tipped his cap and disappeared in the direction of the parking lot. Hodgins watched the car as it drove away on the dusty road leading towards the boarder and then disappeared behind a large rock. Then he turned around and went back to the administrative building. Briggs had offered him a room there.

Giorgio laughed. "Oh boy, I`m such a bad person. And I can lie, too. God really didn`t give me any good traits. But at least I make good use of the bad ones." He stepped on the breaks and got out of the car. He entered the shed with long strides, tore the sack off the crate and opened the lid. "Hello, little doctor." He grinned when he saw her fearful gaze and grabbed the woman`s arms. He rudely drew her out of the crate. "Too bad that you`re awake. Unfortunately I left the chloroform at the camp. And to stop you from putting up a fuss while we`re driving ..." He reached back and punched her in the face with his fist.  
Bones` head was thrown back. Pain struck across her cheek. But the man didn`t stop. He kept punching her until she fell to the floor. Hazily, he felt him carrying her outside and dropping her into the trunk.  
"That should suffice. You´re pretty tough, I have to hand it to you. Your bad." He slammed the lid of the trunk closed. Then he got in behind the wheel and started driving.

Bones barely registered anything during the drive. She heard distant voices, Spanish words reaching her ears. She wanted to make herself known but the pain robbed her of all her energy. Then there was only the sound of the engine and the wheels crunching on the ground, getting quieter after some time as if they were driving on grass. They drove across a meadow, the car jolting through pot holes. Single, high and dry blades of grass scratched against the underbody. And finally the car stopped.  
The trunk lid was opened and her kidnapper dragged her out of the vehicle. He threw her over his shoulder, groaning quietly. In front of him was a stairway, seeming to lead directly down into the meadow and ending in front of a heavy steel door. Behind the door was a passage. A simple, narrow and plain hallway made of concrete. It ended at yet another stairway, ten steps leading down into another hallway. Darkness surrounded the two people. The doors leading away to the left and right were not visible, but the man knew his way. He could orient himself blindly.  
Finally, he opened a door and simply let her fall onto the ground. He turned on the light, using a switch outside the room.  
Bones saw the small room. Cold, bare concrete, maybe four times three meters in size. The floor and the walls were gray, colorless. Four meters above her on the ceiling hung a small lightbulb. There were no windows and the door was made of massive steel with only one small opening.  
"We`re inside a nuclear fallout shelter. No bastard will find you down here. At least you`ll be save in case of an atomic war." He grinned down at the woman. "You are mine, little doctor. Mine alone."  
"Why don`t you just kill me?," she asked, her voice shaking.  
He laughed haughtily and turned around to leave. "Oh, I will. As soon as you beg me on your knees, I`ll put a bullet through your head. But we both know how proud you are. And until you are ready to beg for death, the two of us will have lots of fun." Before he closed the door, he turned to look at her again. "By which, of course, I mean that I will be having fun. But I`m sure your brilliant minde already figured that out." He slammed the door behind him and switched off the light.

In the silence of the room, Bones listened to the sound of her own breathing after the steps had faded away. She was lying in complete darkness, could see or hear absolutely nothing. Except for the pounding. After a few minutes she realized that it was her own heartbeat. She listened to the quick beats, pressing her abused face against the cold floor. Her body was shaking uncontrollably. While it was about 86°F outside, the temperature in here could not be higher than 59°F. The air was stiffling and dry. Since she was still breathing through her mouth, her throat dried out and she had to cough. Slowly, she worked herself into a sitting position.  
She scooted backwards until her body touched the wall. Through her thin jacket and blouse, which was wet with sweat, she felt the cold concrete. Her immune system had always been pretty strong, but she was not sure whether she would manage to survive in here for long.  
"Long enough?," she asked the silence. She jumped, startled by how loudly her voice resonated among the walls. "Long enough for Booth to come," she whispered. "Simply long enough for him to find me."  
For the first time since the man had kidnapped her did she manage to have a clear thought. A positive thought. Booth. He would save her. This wasn`t the first time she was in danger, but so far he had always saved her. She simply had to do her bit and stick it out. Fight.  
A door fell shut. Then steps approached her prison. Why was he coming back? What did he want from her now? She waited, shifting her position so the steps were approaching her and was almost blinded by the light of the bulb a minute later. Hastily, she shut her eyes tightly.  
"Kneel on the floor, forehead far down. I`ll take off your bonds but if you make a fuss, little doctor, I`ll break each and every bone in your body."  
She did as she was told. She would not get out of here if she couldn`t put this man out of action for good and she did not have the strength for that right now. She sat there, her forehead pressed to the floor, and felt him bend over her.  
"That`s exactly how the girls sat when I ..." He laughed and cut her bonds. Then he took the small piece of plastic. "There is an indentation in the wall. You`ll have no trouble finding it. Press on it and a door will slide open. There is a bathroom. A toilet, a roll of paper next to it. Use it sparingly. There`s a sink, too, but you shouldn´t drink the water. It`s infested with fertilizer. It won`t kill you but ... well, you`re the scientist. You can use it to wash yourself a little, though." He pressed his hand onto the back of her neck. "So, do I get to hear a thank you?"  
"Thanks," she gasped quietly.  
"There you go." He got up. "Stay down." He backed towards the door.  
"Please," she whispered. His steps haltered. "Can I keep it?"  
He seemed confused. "Keep what?"  
"The cable ties."  
Giorgio pulled the small plastic tie out of his pocket and looked at it. She couldn`t do anything stupid with that. "Need something to do, huh? Afraid you´ll lose your mind?"  
"Yes," she admitted. The tie fell to the floor next to her.  
The light was switched off again. "See you later." The door fell shut.  
Bones slowly sat up and rubbed her numb wrists. Quickly she felt for the cable tie and put it in her pocket to the bag with Dira`s bone. Those two things were the only things she had. But deep down she knew that it was better than nothing.

Slowly she got up and started feeling the walls. After what felt like an hour, she finally found the small button. Next to her, the wall opened with a hiss. She felt around everywhere, but there was no way she could escape from here. She found the metal bowl that was the sink and then the toilet. She was grateful for the comfort. When you had nothing, having your own bathroom was almost a luxury. Carefully and under lots of pain she cleaned her face of the blood, using the sleeve of her jacket as a cloth.  
Once she was reasonably done, she left the room, closed the door and felt her way along the wall towards a corner of the room that was across from the entry. Her sense of direction still worked, she was sure of it. She slid down the smooth wall, her back leaning against the cold concrete, and pulled her legs close to her body. She wrapped her arms around them and laid her chin on her knees.  
What was Hodgins doing right now? Surely he had already noticed that she was missing. So he would be looking for her. And surely he had already informed the Jeffersonian and the FBI. So Booth would be here tomorrow. Only a few miles away from her. And he would talk to Giorgio about her. Maybe the man would give himself away. She froze. This was the first time she had called him by name in her thoughts. She was surprised by how quickly her fear was making her soften. He gave her a bathroom and the freedom to move and A MAN became Giorgio. She swallowed roughly, unsure whether it was a good idea to analyze her own behavior.  
After a while, she made herself a little more comfortable, yawned and closed her eyes tiredly. According to her inner clock it was late at night. She would not get out of here. The door didn´t have a handle on the inside, she had seen that. Where there used to be a handle, there was a metal plate, welded onto the door. She could not do anything with her bare hands. Therefore, she might as well save her strength.

Booth was on his way to the camp and by now he had grown rather edgy. At first, he had not found the news of Bones` disappearance overly dramatic, but on the flight here he had started thinking about it. Yes, it occassionally happened that she lost track of time while working, but for six hours? Sometime someone had to find her if she was still in the camp. There were not that many places to hide a person in there. And then there was still the killer. A man who abducted women and girls, raped them and then killed them. And when he reached that thought, he felt really scared. What if Bones really had found something? She had wanted to look for the finger, he knew that. There was no other reason for her to return to the camp so quickly. What if she had found the finger? Maybe at the crime scene? What if she had met the killer there?  
By now, he was sitting in a rental car and only a few meters away from the camp. "If you hurt her, you bastard, I`ll rip you to pieces," he swore to the probably kidnapper of his colleague. Colleague? Bones was his friend. A very good friend and he had to save her. "Why didn`t you tell me where you were going, damn it?" He hit the steering wheel. A traffic sign appeared in front of him, forcing him to reduce his speed. Guards were standing at the gate, waving at him. He rolled down the window. "Agent Seeley Booth, FBI. I need to talk to the director of this camp."  
The men looked at his badge. "Through the gate, then the big building on the left. Briggs` office is on the first floor, left hallway, third door to the right."  
Booth nodded and drove on when the gate was opened. He saw people standing in front of stone houses. They appeared to be arguing about something in agitation. When they saw him, they shifted into a defensive stance.  
"Is there FBI written onto my car somewhere?," he muttered. These people knew exactly who he was. They could feel it. Hodgins was standing in front of one of the buildings and ran to the car when he recognized Booth behind the wheel.  
"Finally," he said anxiously. His eyes were sparkling. "Still no trace of her. The guards are looking for her, but it`s too dark now. They want to continue tomorrow."  
"I`m sure they already wreaked havoc on this camp," Booth said as he got out of the car. "Where do they still want to search?"  
Hodings seemed pretty desperate. "I have no idea. That`s why I called you."  
"Why didn´t Bones do that? Why didn`t she call me to tell me you wanted to come here again?"  
"I don`t know." He shrugged. "She said something about you being busy, but somehow ... She has been acting strangely ever since we were here. I have no idea what happened a few days ago and I don`t know why she wanted to come here on her own, no matter what. She didn`t tell Angela anything, either."  
'The two of us, of all people' Booth thought, silently vowing to have a talk with Angela soon. But first he wanted to talk to the director of the camp. The only problem were the camp inhabitants. They had slowly approached the car and were looking at him very suspiciously.  
"What do the coppers want here? You are a copper, right?"  
"He`s with the FBI," Hodgins said. "And he is not here for you but because of Dr. Brennan."  
"Only because she disappeared a few hours ago?" The man laughed. "Tell it to the marines!"  
"Do you know something about her disappearance?" Booth took a few steps towards the man. "Does anyone know anything?" Silenece. "Now listen to me, and listen closely. I don´t care about you at all. Of course I want to catch the killer walking around here, but to do that I need Dr. Brennan`s findings. She is the best. And without her this will be very difficult."  
"Is she a colleague of yours?," an old woman asked. The men took a few steps back respectfully to let her pass.

"Temperance is ... she is my friend." He noticed the way Hodgins looked at him, but did not want to talk to either him or the people here about the distinction between a friend and a girlfriend.  
"She is important to me, so I came here right after her disappearance. Without the knowledge or permission of my bosses."  
The woman nodded and stepped in front of him. "Dr. Brennan has been gone since this afternoon. Some of the men looked for her but didn`t find any trace. We think the killer might have her. I am very sorry." She lowered her gaze and left. The men, too, disappeared.  
"If this guy has her ..."  
"Shut up, Hodgins, okay?," Booth snapped at him. "She`s alive and we will find her." With that, he went towards Thomas Briggs` office with long strides. He stormed right in, not bothering to knock. "My name is Seeley Booth. I`m with the FBI. The murder case here is my case but I actually wanted to wait for the results of Dr. Brennan`s investigation. Now, following her disappearance, I will start my investigation a whole lot sooner."  
The man who had been napping in his desk chair, jumped. "What? How? Erm ... Thomas Briggs. I`m sorry about Dr. Brennan`s disappearance. We have no explanation for this."  
"Do you have any clues?"  
"No. My deputy is heading the search."  
"That would be Giorgio Angeles? I`ve got to talk to this man."  
Now Briggs was fully alert. "Listen, Agent Booth. The man may not have a clean slate, but he is good at his job. I have no use for sissies, they wouldn`t make it for a full two days here."  
"He was with the death squads in his home county. And during an uprising here he shot and killed a six year old girl."  
"He said it was an accident. He himself was injured by a colleague`s bullet. I`ve got 50 guards and 500 camp inhabitants here. We had to take quick and drastic measures, otherwise more people would have died."  
Booth looked at the man angrily. "That is something you should resolve with your superiors. Actually, I don`t give a shit about it right now. I want to find Bones and then we`ll take care of the killer."  
"Bones?"  
"Dr. Brennan. It`s her ... nickname."  
"Fitting. But you can´t do anything in the dark. Most of the people in the camp like Dr. Brennan because she promised to bring back their loved ones. So as long as you are looking for her here, you won`t have to worry. The people will help you. But it`s of no use in the dark. The camp is not that well-lit. Why don`t you go up to the second floor? The room on the very left is empty and there`s a bed in there. Lay down and get some sleep and tomorrow you can talk to Giorgio. Dr. Hodgins has the room right next to yours."  
Booth pressed his lips together. He wanted to turn the camp upside down, but that would probably be to no avail. The man facing him was right. "Okay. I`ll go upstairs and lie down. Please wake me as soon as your deputy is here."  
"Of course, Agent Booth."  
Booth left the room and walked right into Hodgins. "Sorry about earlier."  
"Forget about it. I`m worried, too."  
"I`ll make a phone call to Washington tomorrow to offically ask for permission to investigate here. Then you can fly back to Washington. I`ll probably come with you."  
"But ..."  
Booth ascended the stairs to his rom. "Hodgins, what am I supposed to do? I will take a look around here tomorrow, but I don`t think I´ll find more than the people who know the place. Or you. Bones found something, I`m sure of it. But I don`t see what she sees. She is better at stuff like that. I need you. Your whole team. We will probably have to solve this case to find Bones. We need to find the killer."  
"So you think he`s got her, too."  
Booth stopped in front of his room and looked at Hodgins. "I don´t want to think so, because the guy is a sadist. If I imagine what ..."  
"It´s my fault. I should have protected her."  
"Bullshit," Booth muttered, even though he was blaming himself, too. "She has a mind of her own and we will try to get some sleep now and then tomorrow we`ll rescue that mind. Bones is strong, she`ll stick it out until we find her."  
Hodgins seemed to perk up a bit. He nodded. "Booth, I want you to promise me something."  
"What?"  
"When the trail leads back here or anything makes you leave Washington to find Bones, I want you to take me with you."  
He thought about it, then nodded. "Fine. Some back-up is never a bad idea."  
Hodgins held out his hand. "Promise?"  
"I promise, squint." Booth smiled. "We will find Bones and her kidnapper."  
"And then may God have mercy upon him."  
Booth nodded. "God won´t be much of a help for him, then."

"Mr Angeles, according to the Bureau you used to be chief of police in ..."  
"I know where I was and I know what I did, Agent Booth. And you know that we got the weapons, money and permission from Army members of the United States. We killed civilians, yes. And your government gave money to my government to pay us."  
Booth pressed his lips together hard. "What do you think of the people here?"  
"Poor sods, all of them. People who have an American passport, like I do, are lucky. They are not so lucky and most of them will probably be sent back. Since they know that, too, they get nervous after a while." Giorgio shrugged. "And yes, we have to take drastic measures every now and then." He looked at the man in front of him. Booth didn´t like that look. It was calculating and cold as ice. "But that`s now why you are here, Briggs said. You are looking for the woman from Washington. That doctor."  
"That`s right. Dr. Brennan. As you might have noticed, she went missing."

"Of course I noticed that, Agent Booth. Me and my men searched the whole camp yesterday, but she is not here. Have a look around if you want to. But I really don`t know where else to look for her."  
"I will look around," Booth threatened. "Thoroughly. And we will find out who killed these women, too. And if you or your men are involved in this, you`re in for it, buddy."  
Giorgio raised his hands, laughing. "If you have any evidence, arrest me. Until then please let me do my job. We have to find an anthropologist who went missing here."  
He got up and left the office.  
Hodgins came in. "So? Does he know anything? I don`t like him."  
"I don`t like him, either. He`s a killer and he`s cold as ice. But if he is involved in the murders of the women or Bones` disappearance ..." Booth trailed off.  
"What does your gut say?"  
"Since when are you interested in what my gut says?"  
"Since this is about Bones."  
Booth looked at him in mild surprise. "He has her, that`s what my gut tells me. He has her and he`s playing with us. And what worries me most is that he doesn`t seem to be in a hurry."  
The two men looked at each other with concern. Since none of this would get them any further, the went to look around the camp together once more. They spent hours looking for clues, asking inhabitants. But they found nothing. Booth didn´t want to give up, though. He kept looking until it got dark and then asked Briggs for another day.  
"Listen, Agent Booth. As far as I am concerned, you can tear down the houses if you rebuild them afterwards. I don`t want any rumors about people disappearing here. Investigate as much as you want to. You have my full support and cooperation."  
Booth believed the man. In his eyes, Briggs was incredibly naive, but he had nothing to do with the murders and Bones` disappearance. All he wanted was for this thing to be solved and for his job to go back to being as calm as he had gotten used to over the years.

Peace and quiet was the very last thing Bones wanted. While Booth was busy turning the camp upside down, she had nothing to do. After a few hours of sleep, she had awoken feeling rather refreshed. She was freezing quite a bit, though, mainly because the floor was so cold. And she was incredibly thirst and hungry. Following her kidnapper`s warning, she didn`t dare drink the water in the bathroom. Therefore, she could do nothing but sit in the corner and wait. Her eyes wide open she stared into the darkness. Nothing happened, though. No one came. She was simply allone.  
After a while, the silence became unbearable. It pressed down on her head, causing her a headache, pricking her ears. She let the back of her head lightly knock against the wall.  
"Relax, Temperance," she whispered. "Stay calm." Slowly she got up and started feeling her way along the wall. She kept walking in a circle, until her feet were finally warm and she wasn`t freezing anymore. In her mind, she kept repeating a poem her mother had taught her many years ago.  
That worked for a few hours. She felt her body growing more and more tired as time passed. Was this because of all the walking or because another day was already over? She had already lost all sense of time. She walked faster but felt like the room was getting smaller. Her breathing came in gasps.  
"I want out of here, I want out of here, I want out of here ...," she muttered over and over. Her dry tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth. She hit the metal door with all her might, then fell to the floor with a cry of pain. "Let me out of here," she whimpered in a sudden moment of panic. "Just finally let me out of here." Tears were streaming down her cheeks and dripping onto the cold floor. The door remained closed. The bunker was as silent as it always had been.

The second day of the search did not yield anything, either. Booth had looked at the storage rooms, but because he didn´t believe he`d find anything, he really didn`t. He stood close to the old sacks for a while, but then Hodgins called for him to come out.  
"Dr. Goodman and Cam are on the phone. They want to know if there is anything new."  
"No, nothing new. We`re going back home." He felt close to choking on the words.  
"We`ve got nothing new, here, either." Zack sounded very displeased.  
"We should sit down together and go over everything. Bones must have found something here and we need to find it, too."  
"Agreed," Cam said. She exchanged a few words with her predecessor, who had filled in for her over the past few das while she had been on a court date in Europe. "The tickets are waiting for you at the airport."  
Hodgins switched off the phone. "And they still haven`t reached Angela. Why does she always disappear when she needs to relax?"  
"Because that`s just the way she is. You know what she`s like." He sighed. "Come on, let`s pack our things and fly back to Washington. I`m going to go crazy here, otherwise, and might actually start tearing down the houses." He hit the wall of the storage room with the hidden metal latch. "And I´d start with this one."

Darkness, loneliness, silence. A sudden flicker of courage and hope, exchanged for cold, fear and thirst. Bones was riding an emotional roller coaster and only her firm belief that Booth would soon save her kept her from getting lost in mindness panic. Finally she had grown so tired from walking that she had fallen asleep, leaning against one of the walls.  
When she awoke, she was looking down the barrell of her kidnapper`s gun. Startled, she scrambled away, blinking several times because the dim light of the light bulb seemed unbearably bright to her and made tears spring to her burning eyes.

"Good morning, little doctor. Sleep well?"  
Bones licked her lips that had cracked open and were bleeding in some places. "Thirsty," she managed to get out.  
"So you do believe me when I tell you the water is contaminated. I`m surprised. But it was damned clever of you." He pulled a small bottle of water out of his jacket pockt and turned it around in his hands.  
"Agent Booth came to the camp." She sat up straight. Booth was there. He was looking for her. "And then he left again. Because he didn`t find anything." A laugh came out of the man`s mouth as he thre wthe bottle in front of her feet.  
The sentence was like a punch to the face. He was gone. Inside, Bones broke down, but she didn`t want to show it. "He`ll come back," she said and reached for the bottle.  
The man put his foot hard on her wrist. "Do you really think that?"  
"Yes." She screamed when he applied more pressure. "He never gives up." The foot disappeared. She took the bottle, crawled back into the corner, away from the door. Greedily, she drank.  
"Don`t drink too much. Be economic, little doctor. You will only get enough to survive. I`m sure you realize why."  
"You want to weaken me."  
"Very good. Gold star for you." Slowly he approached her. When he saw her hastily screwing the bottle shut and hiding it behind her back, he laughed. "Oh, don`t worry, I won`t take it away from you."  
Bones curled up into an even tighter ball. The man was looming over her. "Let me out of here, please." She knew it was a useless plea, but she just had to get it out.  
"Okay, it was worth a try. But hey, you don´t really think that, right?" He aimed his gun down at her forehead, pressing it hard against her head.  
Bones swallowed. He would not shoot, she knew that. The situation still scared her, though.  
"Look at me."  
She did. Looked up and right into his eyes. He had to see her fear, her tears. That was what he wanted. When he took the gun away in satisfaction and turned around with a grin, she felt dirty. But it didn´t matter because she had gotten water.  
"Are you allergic to any food? Or do you need medication?" She shook her head. "Good. See you later, little doctor." He threw a vial at her and then slammed the door shut. The light stayed on.  
Bones looked down at the pills he had given her. It was a vitamin product with trace elements. She took one of the pills and washed it down. He wanted her to stay as healthy as possible. She was his toy and he had only gotten started having fun with her. Panic rose in her all over again. Soon, he would no longer be satisfied with scaring her. And she had already experienced that he had no problems with being violent.  
Slowly she got up and went into the small bathroom. The sink and the toilet were made of a sparkling, reflective metal. She looked into the sink and stared in shock. Her face was covered in blood. When trying to wash herself, she had only smeared it all over her face instead of getting rid of it. She carefully corrected her mistake.  
"You have to stick it out," she told her mirror image. "He will save us." She paused in confusing. "Me, I meant."  
When she was done, she went back outside. The time in the dark had been bad, but now that she had light and could take her time in looking around her prison, she realized that sometimes not knowing was bliss. This dull grey was unbearable. The walls were so smooth, there were no little stones, no cracks, nothing. Absolutely nothing. Only the door with the black square in it. She thought it looked like a dark eye. An eye that was staring at her.  
Or was it two eyes? Was he standing outside in the hallway, watching her? Was he enjoying her fear? She crawled to the wall next to the door in an attempt to escape the imaginary or real stare and looked up fearfully. Her eyes fixated on the hole, made it seem bigger and darker and more and more threatening the longer she looked.  
Suddenly, an arm shot through the hole, the hand reaching in her direction.  
Bones screamed in panic and jumped up. She ran to the other wall and sank down to the floor, shivering.  
"Boooohoooooooo," Girogio called and kicked the metal door. She heard a dark laugh. Steps disappeared and after a minute another door slammed closed far away.  
Bones sat in the corner of the room, shivering and with her eyes wide open, staring at the door. He had startled her so much her heart had seemingly stopped for several seconds. Now it was beating twice as fast as normal instead. She sobbed as the tension left her body. With her hands pressed to her face, she sat there and cried.

Time passed with inquiries, conferences, meetings. Booth had hardly slept through the night since Bones had disappeared and was accordingly irritable. He kept pushing Hodgins and Zack, who snapped back at him, being equally tired and annoyed. However, his anger remained on one level so his superiors didn`t have to intervene.  
"Where are the men?," Hodgins grumbled. "I am more and more sure that this is an important question. The direct relatives of the murdered women and girls have all disappeared. Where are they?"  
"I have no idea." Booth was sitting on the couch in Bones` office and drank a cup of coffee. This office had become some sort of pilgrimage site for the two lab assistants and the FBI agent since its owner`s disappearance. And it was a place of peace. They never argued in here. In here, quietness and concentration reigned.  
"She has been gone for a week. And where the hell is Angela when you need her?"  
"I am always there when I am needed," the woman in question chirped happily as she came floating into the room. "Hey boys. How are you? Where is Bones?" The three looked at her dumbstruck. "What? I just had a few days holiday. I haven`t changed that much, have I? Maybe I acquired a bit of a tan, but otherwise ..." She grinned.  
"Would you please leave us alone for a moment?" Booth looked at Zack and Hodgins. Silently, they got up and left the room.  
"Okay," Angela said. "What is going on here? Where is Bones?"  
"Please sit down for a moment," Booth said and gently pushed her down onto the couch. "Angela..."  
"I don`t want to sit down," she said, shaking off his hands. She jumped up. "Where is Tempe?"  
"She disappeared a week ago. We tried to reach you but no one knew where you were."  
"What?" The woman stared at Booth, completely shocked. "For a week? Why? Where? Why?"  
Again, Booth pushed her down onto the couch. "She went back into the camp with Hodgins."  
"What?" She jumped up again and this time Booth let her go. "Why would she? Why didn`t she take you with her?"  
"I don`t know. I would have come with her, of course. We wanted to go back there together, but it looks like she got impatient or whatever." He shrugged helplessly. "She wanted to look for the missing finger and then suddenly she was gone."  
"No, no. She would not have gone there alone ... He is there ... I don`t understand this..."  
That got Booth`s attention. "Wait a minute, Angela. You know why she was behaving so strangely?"  
She nodded quickly, but then paused. Bones had made her promise not to tell anyone. But why? Because she wanted to be alone with her fears once again. Angrily, Angela slammed her fist onto the desk. "You stubborn woman!," she cursed her friend. "Booth," she said to him emphatically, "Bones was afraid. She was absolutely terrified of a man in the camp. Some guy she knew from El Salvador. I think he was a soldier there or something."  
"Yes, the deputy director of the camp. Unsympathetic guy."  
"He kept Bones prisoner in a dark cell for three days in El Salvador and kept threatening to shoot her and throw her body into a well where no one would ever find her."  
"He what?," he asked a lot more loudly than necessary. "She knew that this guy is walking around there and still went back? Why?"  
"Because she wanted to prove to herself that she can."  
Booth sank down on the couch. "He has her. He has her again. Angela, what did that guy do to her?"  
"I don`t know and I didn`t ask too many questions. But when she told me about what happened back then, there were tears in her eyes. Booth, you know her. She is strong and can put up with a lot. But she is afraid of this man even after all these years." She knelt in front of him. "Please, Booth, find her. Please."  
He took her hands that were resting on his knees in his. "Of course I will find her. But if I had known that earlier ..." He pressed his lips together hard.  
"He will hurt her, right?"  
Carefully he pulled the weeping woman onto the couch and into his arms. "I think so, yes. But she is strong, you said so yourself. She will get through this."  
"She believes in you, Booth. She hopes you will find her, you know that."  
The agent nodded. There was a big lump in his throat. The pressure Angela was putting on him was working very well indeed. So far, he had been able to hide his fears, but now they sprang to the surface with all their might. He could feel himself starting to shiver.  
Cam came running into the office. "Booth, your boss called. He wants you to come see him right now."  
"I`m sorry, Angela, but ..."  
"Go," she said urgently. "Come on, go."  
He ran from the room and out of the building, jumped into his car and sped through the city, breaking each and every traffic rule in the process. In his boss`s office, he met another Agent who had worked with him on the drug dealers` case.  
"Agent Stone? I am currently busy working another case, I`m sorry."  
"I knowm, Booth. That`s why I`m here. We arrested a man you are looking for."  
Booth looked at his colleague in confusion but let him hand him a file filled with pictures. His eyes flew open in shock.

"Hello, my little doctor."  
The sound of that voice alone made Bones shiver. She heard the door open and tried to crawl even further into the corner she was sitting in. She had drawn her jacket over her head to dim the light a little which had become torturous by now. She had hardly slept in all the hours or days it had been on. And the scare her kidnapper had given her before he left sat deep. She had hardly dared to even look in the direction of the door and it had been pure horror for her to have to walk past it on her way to the bathroom.  
The jacket was ripped away. Giorgio was standing above her. He told her to stand up and look at him. He had another bottle of water with him which he put onto the floor. His eyes were measuring her.  
"I need a picture of you. Just to be sure, you know. In case the coppers get me for the murders. Then I`ll take your picture to this agent and show it to him and then I`ll be right back here with you, my little doctor."  
She stayed silent. He was right. Booth would let him go in the hopes of following him. And he would risk his career for it. She was so lost in thought she didn´t see the fist. The punch hit her in the chin and made her stagger.  
"Stay on your feet. Come on. You can take that easily."  
He hit her again and again. She felt how the blood ran down her face, especially after the last punch which had thrown her head around so her temple hit the wall. She saw double and felt sick. Oh, how she would have loved to defend herself, to hit back just once. But then her life would have been over. Right now the man only wanted to play with her and as long as she held still and suffered, he was having fun. As long as he was having fun, she was staying alive.  
"Now you look good, little doctor. Go sit in your corner and look at the camera. Nice and fearful."  
Bones had no trouble following that order. She could not help looking at the camera, filled with panic and with a silent plea in her eyes. The idea that Booth would get to see this picture of her broke her heart. Tears rolled down her cheeks while at the same time a spark of hope rose in her chest at the thought of him.  
Giorgio laughed and threw a few slices of bread onto the floor, followed by a plastic bowl filled with cereal and milk in it. "Here. Eat that. And pray for me so your dear colleagues won`t prove I am responsible for those murders. Otherwise, you will die a wretched death in here."  
He left and switched off the light. She closed her eyes and savored the silence and darkness. Slowly she started eating the cereal from the bowl, using her fingers. It was completely softened by the milk and slimy, but her emaciated body accepted the nourishment gratefully. She listened to the fading steps, felt the blood in her face and couldn`t supress a crazy laugh. She put the food away and went to the door.  
"You bastard!," she whispered through the hole. "You damn bastard." She was shaking from head to toe, unable to bear the mixture of fear and hatred and gratefulness any longer. Yes, she was grateful to him. Grateful for the water and the food, even grateful for the beatings that showed her that she had not been alone for a few minutes. She let out a long-drawn-out scream, filled with all the pain and fear she felt. Then she broke down crying.  
A few minutes later, after she had gotten a grip on herself once again, she crawled back to her food and continued eating her cereal. If she restrained herself, she could distribute the food over a three day period. After that, it would go bad. It was simply too valuable for that. Surely he would bring her new food when he came back.  
"My god," she mumbled in between two bites. "When did I stop hoping for rescue?"

Back at the Jeffersonian, Booth found a sleeping Angela, Zack and Hodgins in Bones` office. Angela was lying in Hodgins` arms on the couch and Zack was sitting in his boss`s armchair. Cam stood next to the agent in the doorway.  
"I am glad they got some sleep here, at least. They just don`t want to go home. Angela is feeling so guilty she keeps drawing faces. But we aren`t making any real progress here."  
"I got news," Booth said as he entered the room. "Guys, wake up." Groggily, they moved. "I found the brother of one of our victims. He`s alive. And he told me a lot after two days of interrogation."  
Angela stretched and sat up a little. "That`s why you were gone for so long." She yawned. "What did you find out?"  
"He sold her in exchange for his own freedom. Giorgio Angeles is maintaining a brothel for men with an affliction for violence in the camp. He offers women who live in the camp. Women and girls. He has to keep them prisoner somewhere below ground. In a place you can get to from the outside without being seen. In return, the husbands, brothers and fathers get drugs, alcohol and especially good food. And when one of the women gets pregnant, she is killed and the family member is allowed to run. The guy we caught wanted to flee to Canada and sold his sixteen-year-old sister in exchange for his freedom."  
"Those bastards." Angela had tears in her eyes. "Bones. What about her?"  
"Giorgio Angeles is the boss of these ... activities. Only one other guard is in the know and always only the men whose women Angeles wants to have. I don`t think Briggs knows anything about it." Booth growled. "The guy we had hanged himself in his cell last night, so we don´t have any witnesses. But we now know there has to be some underground entry to the camp. You guys have to find it. Angela, Zack, take care of it. Look it up on building plans and maps and if anyone causes trouble, just ask my boss for help. Hodgins and I will fly back to the camp and continue the search there."  
"What about Bones?," Angela repeated her question, a little more urgently this time.  
"I think Angeles brought her out of the camp using the underground entry and then took her across the border to Mexico."  
Everyone was quiet until Hodgins got up and took his jacket. "Let´s go."  
"The flight leaves in three hours."  
Hodgins laughed. "I´ve got a private jet at the airport. Let`s take that one. It`s faster and we`re a lot more independent."  
Booth smiled and slapped his shoulder. "Great idea, Hodgins."  
"Jet?," Cam asked in confusion, watching the two men leave. "Are we paying our employees that much?"  
Zack shook his head. "No, but his family has a lot of money." He and Angela exited the office, leaving a very confused boss behind.

"And do you have even a single piece of proof for this absurd accusations, Agent Booth?" Giorgio Angeles looked at him challengingly and Booth hated that look. And the relaxed position of the man opposite from him, too. "Except of course the word of a man who hanged himself in his cell the following night?"  
"I know the camp like the back of my hand and I can reassure you there are no underground tunnels here." Briggs looked at him openly.  
Booth shook his head. "Please excuse my directness, but I don´t think you have any idea of what`s going on in this camp." He turned back to Giorgio. "Where is Bones?"  
"I don`t have the slightest idea." He grinned so provocatively that Booth would have loved to go for his throat.  
Hodgins nudged the Agent`s arm. "Come on, Booth, we`ll go and look for that tunnel or whatever it is." They left the office. "When we`ve found it, he can`t deny it any longer."

Together, they searched the storage rooms, this time being very thorough and therefore they quickly found what they were looking for. Hodings was the one who discovered the entry to the tunnel and climbed down there with Booth. They looked at the cells with the old mattresses which were covered in blood stains. Finally, they found the cell in which the executions had been carried out.  
"Bones` mobile phone." Hodgins carefully picked it up. "So she was here. This is where he abducted her." He looked around. "No fresh blood. Everything we can see here is several months old."  
"I`ll give this pig a piece of my mind," Booth cursed, running back the way they had come. He jumped up the ladder and marched back to Briggs` office with long strides. "We found the cells and Bones` mobile phone. Someone smashed it to pieces. And I will proof that you, Giorgio Angeles, are the killer and wirepuller in this and also that you abducted my colleague. Where is Bones?"  
"I never abducted anybody. And I didn`t kill anyone. I don`t know anything about any cells."  
"Where is Bones?"  
"I have no idea," the man hissed. "Maybe she was sick of all of this and went across the border. And now she`s laying on a beach and getting some from a young mexican ..." That was too much for Booth. He reached back and punched him in the chin. Giorgio lightly touched his cheek and pulled a face. "I will complain to your superiors about you," he calmly said. His eyes were blazing with uncontrollable fury.  
Briggs threw the man and Booth an uneasy look. "I want to see those cells."

Bones was lying on the floor, gasping for breath. Blood was running out of her nose and dripping to the floor. The pain was so strong it almost took her breath away. She assumed he had broken her a few rips with his last few kicks or at least bruised them. But she was smiling in the dark. It was a lively smile, an almost happy one. For a few minutes she could forget her fears. And she could think of her kidnapper`s face without feeling disgusted.  
She had known she was going to get beaten up when he approached her cell through the tunnel, cursing loudly. But when she saw his face, swollen from the punch Booth had given him, she had smiled. Of course that had only made him angrier and he had let his anger out on her. But his words had been music in her ears. He had cursed Booth for finding the cells. And because now even Briggs was unsure of whom to believe. Giorgio had been worried. He knew the Texan law and he had committed 37 murders. Not to mention all his other crimes. But since he was a gambler, he could not simply disappear. It was way too much fun for him to be the one hunted.  
Finally, he had stopped his assault on her and left without giving her any food or water. But Bones did not care about that right now. She had no idea how long she had been in this room already, but for a short moment she could enjoy her loneliness and give in to her dreams of Booth opening the door and saving her again. Because now she had the proof for her belief that he would not give up. He would never give up searching for her.

Unfortunately this wonderful moment did not last long, because Giorgio had noticed that his prisoner had found new hope. So he came back to destroy that hope.  
Now he was standing in front of his kneeling victim and happily told her all the details about what he had done to the women and girls. He talked about the promises he had made to the men, about the pressure he had put on them so they would give him what he wanted. He talked at length about the orgies that had taken place inside the cells and the suffering of his victims. And he kept his eyes locked on Bones` the whole time. He had his gun pressed to her forehead, his finger stiff on the trigger.  
"They suffered incredibly much, my little doctor. And don´t you think you`re being spared that. I`m simply taking my time. You are still young, we have many years ahead of us."  
The good feeling had disappeared now and Bones was afraid again instead. She knew this man and she knew that this was not an idle threat. He wanted her. And him taking his time only showed that he was feeling confident again.  
"I think you can wait a little longer, right? I`ll have to see how things will progress with your colleague, first." He pulled the trigger for fun but all there was was a quiet click. The weapon had not been loaded. Giorgio was having fun and laughed haughtily as Bones flinched. "What? Did I scare you?" He saw the tear running down her cheek. "Seems that way."  
She watched as he went to the door and fell back into her corner. While he put food next to the door, he continued talking. "Your colleague, this Booth guy, is good. He is a gambler like me. A hunter. Maybe a little uncontrolled, but that happens. Of course I could simply hide here but that would not be much fun." He grinned. "I will go back and wait for them to find and convict me. And then I`ll play my trump card."  
Then he was gone. And while Bones was happy at first, the following days were hell for her. Because even though she had no calendar and no longer had a sense of time, she still felt that many days had passed when she heard steps in the tunnel on the other side of her cell door again. Many, many days.

"I was thrown off the case," Booth grumbled. "I am going to leave the camp."  
Briggs struggled for a moment. Finally, he said: "Did you take vacation so you could still work on the case?"  
"Actually, I`m on sick leave. Migraine."  
"Then stay here. I won`t throw you out."  
Booth was surprised. "Why not?"  
"I told you from the very start that I want this case solved. And even though I am still in shock and can`t really believe that it actually was Giorgio, I still want to know the truth."  
Hodgins smiled in relief. Since they had found Bones` cell phone, he was once again working the case with zeal. He had spent the past two days investigating alongside the crime scene investigators of the FBI, sending sample after sample back to Washington.  
Booth informed his superior of where exactly he was recovering from his migraine and was warned to keep a low profile and not beat up anyone else. Cam had no intention of restricting the help she was giving the suspended FBI Agent, either. So everything basically stayed the same.  
Since he himself was not needed for the investigation, Booth had time to look around the camp once more. He talked to the men and women there, did not keep any information from them and therefore quickly noticed with whom Girogio had already spoken.  
Dira`s grandmother Maria Bishop came to his room one evening. Her eyes were blazing with anger and she made Booth tell her the whole story with all its details. "And you are absolutely sure that they did not simply kidnap the girls?"  
"Absolutely. Giorgio Angeles did not take that risk. A member of your family, a male member who wants or wanted to run, knew about it. He sold Dira. And he knew what would happen to her."  
"I see." She left without another word. For the next two days, Booth did not hear anything from her.  
His prime suspect had been suspended but was still walking around the camp periodically. Booth didn`t even want to wonder where Bones was in the meantime. At the same time, he was glad that Giorgio was here because it meant he could not hurt her. Of course he had seen the other man`s hands on the day after his outburst, had seen the skinned knuckles. And he knew exactly whom he had let his anger out on. That was why Booth had decided not to goad Giorgio any more. Bones was the one who would have to pay for his inability to control himself. So he kept swinging back and forth between hope and fear and waited for the results of the FBI investigations, his friends from the Jeffersonian or a coincidence that would help him along here.

"Good lord," Booth muttered. His Spanish was rather bad and he had no trouble admitting that. But, as was usually the case, the swear words were easily understandable. And the ones Maria was yelling at her son were a bit of all right.  
"Heavens, some of those even make me blush," Hodgins said as the door to Briggs` office was thrown open.  
The director of the camp had been sitting here with Booth and Hodgins, who was supervising the CSI team. They had been talking about their further steps in the case. There were no more clues to find, all relevant data and facts came together at the Jeffersonian and the finger prints and DNA-samples that had been collected all pointed to Giorgio Angeles. The man had been down there all the time, despite his claims of not even knowing about this horrific place. Of course the tunnel to the shed had been found as well and he had left more trails in the shed as well as oil from his car. And in a wooden crate on the floor next to it had been blood traces that could be attributed to Bones. The evidence did suffice for a conviction but it was purely circumstantial evidence and Booth wanted at least one solid piece of evidence. And he did not want Angeles to run, which was why he had graceously ignored him for most of the time without ever letting him out of his sight for even a second.  
Cursing loudly, Maria Bishop pushed her son into the room, hitting his back over and over with her cane. Briggs raised one eyebrow but did not interfere. No one here got into Maria`s way. Everyone respected the old woman, even though he had never found out why. But since she had a lot of common sense he had no problems with that.  
"Maria, what can I do for you?"  
"This bastard of a man sold her. Sold her for his freedom. His own daughter!" Her cane came crashing down on the shoulder of the man once more. He ducked but did not make any other attempt to defend himself, not to mention fight back.  
"You were doing business with Giorgio? Why are you still here?"  
"A few soldiers caught me when he tried to flee to Mexico, the coward. They shot him. Here." She slammed her cane against the healing gunshot wound.  
"Ouch! Mama, I did not do anything," he said, but didn`t look at her.  
Booth nodded and got up. "You are lying. You are lying to your mother but at least you got the decency not to look at her while you do it."  
"He is well raised in some areas. In others I failed completely," Maria said and lowered her cane. Tiredly, she sank down on the chair the Agent had occupied only moments earlier. She left it to him to get her stubborn son to talk.  
"We need your statement and then Angeles will end up in death row for everything he did." Imploringly, Booth kept talking to the man. But he only shook his head. "What are you afraid of? Even though he has an American passport, he is as much of an immigrant as you are. He does not have any great contacts here. He was gone far too long for that."  
"He would find me and kill me."  
"You don`t deserve any better," Maria snapped at him. "Your own daughter ... She was fifteen years old."  
"My god, it was only a little bit of sex. And sometimes you have to make sacrifices."  
Booth thought he had heard wrong. "She is dead."  
The man looked at him uncertainly. "Angeles said it was an accident. He said she fell and broke her neck."  
"She was shot, just like all the other women. Here, this is the report."  
Hodgins handed him the file they kept in the office.  
"I can`t read. But I believe what this man says."

"So you believe him," Booth said quietly and grasped his arm. "Come with me. I`ll show you what Giorgio Angeles meant when he said 'just a bit of sex'. Come on."  
Briggs jumped to his feet. "Where do you want to go?"  
"Just down to the cells. I want him to see where his daughter died and I´ll tell him how. I`ll show him how."  
"Okay. But your gun stays here."  
Booth took the bullets out of it. "I need it for my demonstration. I want him to see and feel what his daughter saw and felt."  
The director of the camp took the bullets and then checked the weapon to make sure it really was not loaded. He nodded. "Try your luck. Maybe you are stronger than he is."  
"The smallest truth is always stronger than all the lies in the world." That was something he had heard Bones say once.  
Booth pushed the man through the camp and into the old storage hall. Then he ordered him to climb down the ladder. The man protested, though, claiming he was afraid of small spaces.  
"I don`t give a damn," the Agent hissed. "Dira was scared, too. Go down there or I`ll help. And I swear I won´t need a weapon for that." Slowly the man followed his order. Booth climbed down after him. "Welcome to hell. Look around, this is where they brought Dira." He opened a door. "This is where she was locked in, in this cell. They took her clothes away and then Giorgio and his customers came. They beat hear. They raped her."  
"Stop this," the man quietly said.  
Booth pushed him into the cell and down on one of the bloodstained mattresses. "Yes, she probably said that, too: stop this. Please let me go. Can you hear your daughter beg? Can you hear her scream?" Even though he was shaking with anger, he kept his voice calm and even. "Can you hear her?," he asked again.  
"Yes, I can hear her. I can hear her," the man whispered. "But Giorgio said they would treat her well."  
Booth didn`t comment. "When she got pregnant, they kept using her for as long as possible and then they grabbed her and dragged her down the hall." He reached for Dira`s father`s upper arm and ruthlessly dragged him towards the execution cell. "Do you see the blood here? The blood of all the victims? She had to kneel down. Come on, down on your knees."  
"But ..."  
"I said get on your knees." Shaking, the man sank down to the floor. Booth pulled his gun. "Giorgio did the executions himself. That was his favorite part. He liked doing that back in El Salvador, too. He pressed his gun here, right to the forehead. That way he could look his victims in the eyes. And then ..." Booth pulled the trigger and there was a quiet click.  
"Nooooo!," the man screamed, jumping up and shoving the Agent to the side before running to the exit. Booth followed him quickly and saw him running toward Giorgio, attacking him with his fists. "You bastard! You talked about taking her to a luxury brothel where she`d sleep on expensive bedding and where rich men would buy her champaigne. You said she`d have a better life than any normal worker. You said she died in an accident."  
"Okay, I lied. But honestly: expensive bedding and champaigne in a hole like that? That would have been a bit over the top, don`t you think?" He raised his eyes. "You think so, too, don`t you, Agent Booth?"  
"You said you´d treat her well," Dira`s father yelled and threw another punch at him. He missed once again.  
"I did treat her well." Giorgio laughed. "For about ... 30 seconds, until we were down there."  
With a pained cry, Dira´s father tried to lunge at his daughter´s killer, but Booth held him back. "You are under arrest, Angeles. You`ll be brought to prison in Austin and they`ll decide how to proceed there."  
Giorgio threw his gun in Booth`s direction and laughed again. "Okay. Are you going to drive me there? I`ve gotten used to you by now."  
"Certainly not."  
Briggs had his men arrest him and take him to the state prison in Austin.  
Hodgins came to stand next to Booth. "Are you crazy? He has Bones!"  
"He wouldn`t have told us anything here. Now he`s facing the death penalty and I´m sure he doesn`t want to die. I talked to the DA days ago. We`ll offer Giorgio Angeles to exchange the death sentence he`ll definitely get to lifelong imprisonment in a prison of his choice. Here in the states, of course and only in exchange for revealing Bones` whereabouts. I am sure he`ll take the offer."  
"He`ll gamble. What will happen to her in the meantime?" Hodgins` eyes were sparkling. He was afraid for Bones.  
Booth knew that fear only too well. "She`ll simply have to stick it out until then."

She was cradling her head in her hands. It hurt after the last sleepless night. Giorgio had returned once more. Not to her directly, but he had talked to her over a microphone and speaker. He had told her that Booth was closing in on him in relation to the murders. With a smile he had told her she would be on her own for a long time now. Many days. But he didn´t want her to get bored, so he had put on a CD for her. Then he had left. And ever since, the CD was playing somewhere out of reach. She could hear nothing but his voice coming from the ceiling. For hours. And this dark, cold voice kept repeating one single sentence to her the whole time.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
In the beginning, she had tried to ignore it. But like the cold many days ago, this voice also penetrated her, settled in her mind. But she didn`t want it to. In this prison, she had learned to value hope. Hope to get out of here, away from him. Booth would save her. That was what she wanted to believe. That was what she believed.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.

It was a threat that he was able to find her again, everywhere. And that was only if she ever actually made it out of here. No, no, not if. As soon as she made it out of here. That was the right thought.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"Yes, I can," she whispered quietly. She would escape him. She would walk out of here, holding Booth`s hand. Surrounded by his strong arms. He had saved her often already. He would do it again.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"Yes, I can." Her voice got louder. Booth needed a little longer than he usually did, but that was normal. She was outside the country, she was in Mexico. But even if Giorgio brought her to the end of the world, which ouf course didn´t exist because the world was round, Booth would find her.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"Yes, I can." She would survive this.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"Yes, I can!" By now she was yelling. Louder than the voice coming from the speakers.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"Yes, I can! Yes, I can! Yes, I can! I`ll get out of here, you bastard!" She hit the wall in desperation.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"Yes, I can!!"  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.

"My client is not confessing to anything." The lawyer leafed through the file and made a disgusted face. Hastily, he snapped it shut.  
"He confessed to everything," Booth said. "There are witnesses."  
"Then we will wait for the beginning of the trial and listen to those witnesses."  
Booth slammed his fist down on the table. "That`s impossible and you know it. He abducted my colleague and by the time the trial starts, she will be dead."  
"I never abducted anyone. And I also didn`t committ murder." Giorgio looked at Booth with interest.  
"We received the DA`s offer. Dr Brennan in exchange for lifelong prison. My client and I discussed the issue but right now he is just an innocent man in investigative custody. Agent Booth, he will not say another word today."  
Booth couldn`t believe his ears. "No. You are not leaving here, Angeles. You got Bones and I will break each and every bone in your body if she dies."  
Giorgio laughed, but didn`t say anything. He was led away. When the door fell closed behind Giorgio Angeles, Booth let loose a scream of anger and threw the chair the man had been sitting on against the wall, where it broke into pieces.

YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
Bones gave a pained scream. She couldn´t hold up any longer. She could not sleep, the voice kept her awake. For countless hours already, probably days. Two, three? It burned its way into her brain, painfully and brutally.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"Be quiet," she whispered, tears in her eyes. "Just finally be quiet."  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
With all her might, she pressed her hands to her ears and started humming a song.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
It didn`t work. The room was too silent. There was only the voice. And even though she didn´t want to, she was already listening for the sentence.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
She didn`t want to hear it. But this sentence penetrated her every thought.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
She wanted to imagine how Booth came to safe her, how he took care of her, treated her...  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
Again, she screamed. "Just be quiet." She jumped up and ran to the door. With her fists, she hammered against the metal.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"Shut up!," she yelled. Using all her strength, she ran against the door. Her shoulder hurt like hell, but it somehow felt good.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
Again, she took a run-up and ran against the metal.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
There was a crunching sound as a bone broke in her shoulder. But she couldn´t go on any longer. As if crazy, she ran back to the wall.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
She slammed against it. "I want out of here!," she yelled.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"Let me out of here. Let me out of here." Again she slammed against the door, hitting her head on the frame of the peephole. Blood ran down her temple.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
She ran against the wall once more, felt dizzy, the world seemed to spin around her.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
She started running again, hit the door, slammed her head against it once more, this time on purpose. Stars seemed to explode in front of her eyes.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
She staggered to the center of the room and fell to her knees. Blood was running down her face, dripping to the floor in the darkness.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"I want to get out of here," she breathed before she collapsed.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.

Two days passed. Two days in which he had gone through hell. At night he dreamed of Bones, saw her dying of thirst in a room, heard her calling for help. He felt as bad and unable as never before in his life. And he was afraid for her. When he was awake, he kept apologizing to her in his mind for taking so long. He asked her to stick it out, promised to find her. And still he felt like he was choking on the fear for her.  
He had kept his distance from the people at the Jeffersonian. Thankfully, Hodgins left him alone. The case was closed, Angela had given faces to all the dead. And now they were putting their hopes on him, just like Bones surely did in her prison. Everyone was expecting him to save Bones. And he felt like he was being crushed by their expectations.  
When the phone rang and he was asked to come to the prison because Giorgio Angeles wanted to give a statement, new hope budded in him. Would he be able to hold Bones in his arms again tonight? But when he saw Giorgio`s face, he knew that it was only the beginning of the next round.  
"I want to talk to you alone, Agent Booth."  
The lawyer left, even though he thought this was a mistake. "Now talk. Where is Bones?"  
"I`ve got the little doctor," he said, grinning. "That is what you wanted to hear, isn`t it, Agent Booth?"  
"Yes," he admitted. "How is she?"  
"Doing worse with every day that passes, I think." There was that smirk again.  
Booth growled lowly and balled his hands to fists. "Did you think about the offer the DA made you?"  
"Of course. I decline. But I have a counter offer for you."  
"Just spit it out." Booth was willing to accommodate this man a lot if only he got Bones back.  
"Make sure I get out of here and I promise I`ll keep looking after the little doctor. She`s slowly running out of food and water, you know?" Laughing out loud, he leaned back. "And she`s losing her mind."  
"Bones is strong. She`ll get through this."  
"Of course she is strong. I`m very surprised at how well she`s doing, myself. In that tiny room. Dark. Silent. Cool. How long would you stick it out in there, Agent Booth?"  
Booth swallowed roughly as he realized what kind of situation Bones had been in for weeks. He started to shake. "I can`t get you out of investigative custody. You know that."  
Giorgio smirked. "I know. But you know, I like fear. It makes me hot. And the fear in your eyes for her is even bigger than the little doctor`s fear of me."  
"You bastard. You damn, sadistic bastard." He balled his hands to fists once more and underlined each of his words by hitting the table.  
The man was still smirking. "You should be grateful to me. I expected you to arrest me and gave her food and water right before it happened. And a CD with my voice so she wouldn´t feel alone."  
"With your voice?" Booth had a sense of foreboding.  
"Yes. I recorded a sentence and put it on infinite loop."  
"What sentence?"  
"You can`t escape me."  
Booth let out a pained cry at the thought of Bones sitting in that room for days, forced to listen to this. He grabbed Angeles` collar. "Where is she, you bastard? Where is she?"  
"Let go of me or I won`t say another word."  
He did. Breathing hard, he leaned across the table. "Keep talking if you like it so much."  
"Good agent. Do you love this woman?"  
"What?" Booth stared at him.  
"Do you love her? Would you do and give everything for her? Or is it really just friendship?"  
"I ..." He shook his head. What did this bastard care about his feelings for Bones?  
"I ..." She was his colleague, a very good friend by now, someone he loved to laugh, talk and spend time with. She was one hell of a woman, no questions asked. Usually so serious and aloof. But sometimes, when she dropped the mask of reason and science, she was so petite, so vulnerable, so endearing. Slowly he lowered his head. "Yes, I love her," he whispered. He knew he was handing himself over to that man with his confession. But he didn`t care. He only wanted to get her back. Tears burned in his eyes as he raised his head. "I love her and I would do anything for her."  
"Great, then get me out of here. I want to get back to my work and see my prisoner in the evenings. And just so you know why you are doing this ..." He pulled an envelope out of his pocket and put it on the table in front of Booth.  
He took it and opened it with trembling fingers. A photograph slipped out. Booth gasped in pain. "Temperance," he whispered and stroked her cheek with his finger. Pure hatred rose in him as he saw her fresh injuries. Her face was covered in blood and her eyes were looking at her tormentor with fear. But beneath the veil of tears, panic, pain and fear, there was something else. He didn`t know if he was only imagining it, but he saw hope in them. This guy had beaten her up to get as shocking a picture as possible, and she looked at the camera with hope. She must have known that the picture was meant for him.  
By now, the lawyer and the district attorney had returned. They took one look at the picture in Booth`s hands and shook their heads in shock.  
"Agent Booth," Giorgio Angeles said slowly.  
"Mmmh?," he asked and raised his eyes. Again, he saw that smirk which he would just love to shoot out of the man`s face.  
"Just so our little game won`t be too easy for you ... I fully confess to the murders of the 37 women and girls in the camp and confirm that I am the wirepuller behind the rapes and flight attempts."  
He laughed hollowly while Booth felt like the world surrounding him was exploding into thousands of tiny shards.

"I don`t understand this. Where is the problem?" Angela was anxiously pacing around the office. Booth had flown to Washington to bring the team up to date on the case. "Booth, you know every lawyer in the country. Get the best and meanest one."  
"That might have been psossible," he said quietly.  
Cam nodded. "Until he confessed. The case is clear as glass. Closed. No judge in the world would ever let him go. He confessed to 37 murders. Bones` life doesn`t count for the judge. She is one person opposite to 37 others."  
"A living person opposite 37 dead ones," Angela said angrily.  
"Shit," Hodgins cursed. "And we were the ones who gave them the evidence that keeps him in prison. And of course we checked and double-checked everything so there is nothing that can somehow be picked to pieces." He wrapped his arms around Angela who broke down sobbing. "Damn it."  
Zack raised his hand a little. "I don`t know much about the legal system, but I think there is a bail for every criminal in America so the prisons won´t be overstuffed with people held in investigative custody."  
"That may be true," Booth said lowly, "but there are exceptions. And a mass murderer living in Mexico is that kind of exception."  
"Tempe," Angela sobbed. "Who knows if she`s even still alive. That bastard."  
"Of course she is still alive," Booth told her angrily. He quickly lowered his voice again. "I`m sorry, Angela. She`s still alive, I know that."  
"You hope so," she said amid tears. "Just like all of us hope. But no one can know for sure. For how long has he been in prison now? How long since he last visited her before that?"  
"Four or five days, I think." Booth looked down at the table. "He left her with food and water. He told me that and I believe him. And Bones is tough. He can´t get her down that easily."  
"She has feelings, too. And she is afraid. And we don`t now what that guy did to her. And ..."  
"Angela, Angela, calm down," Hodgins said quietly. He gently stroked her back. "He is afraid for her, too." Booth looked at him questioningly. "I know how you feel about her. The lawyer of that guy said something about it to me when they walked past me. I was waiting at the door while you were in interrogation. But why did you tell him?"  
"He loves to hurt people. He wanted to know how deep his game is hurting me and if he can hurt me with her disappearance. He asked me if I love her."  
Angela raised her gaze and looked at her in surprise. "I asked you that several times already. Does it really take a mass murderer for you to realize that?"  
"Seems that way." He smiled sadly. "Angela, I love Bones. And I would get this guy out of prison by force of arms so he can look after her. But it`s no use."  
"To look after her so he can keep torturing her."  
"Yes." Booth nodded. He pressed his lips together in a hard line and looked down at his hands.  
For a while, everything was silent in Bones` office for a while. Everyone was lost in his own thoughts and they all revolved around the woman who should be sitting behind her desk in here.  
"Booth," Angela suddenly said in a sad voice. "Why are you lying to us?"  
"I`m not lying to you. I really think she is still alive."  
"No, you know she is. Why? What did he tell you, show you, give you? Please, Booth, tell us the truth."  
He struggled for a moment. Bones` picture was for him. He didn´t want to give it away. It was his reason to fight. And he actually didn´t want the others to see it. With a sigh, he reached for the picture, drawing it out of the breast pocket of his shirt and putting it onto the table in front of Angela.  
"Oh my god," she gasped. "Tempe ..." She stared at the picture, her mouth open in shock.  
Cam took a look at it. "Bastard. He mangled her like that just for this picture. The wounds are fresh."  
Zack went pale as he looked at it and Hodgins slammed his fists onto the table. Then he got up and ran from the room. Booth looked after him regretfully. He knew how bad Hodgins felt and how much he blamed himself because of her.  
Sobbing, Angela pressed the picture to her chest and left the room. Booth stopped her for a moment. "I need that back."  
"In a moment."  
"She probably wants to make a copy." Cam was half-sitting on Bones` desk.  
"Why? It looks gruesome and the sight of it hurts." Zack stared at them both. "Why would anyone want to have it?"  
"Her eyes, Zack." Booth looked at him calmly and seriously. In all their cases together he had never explained anything to Zack before. "Her eyes are full of pain and tears, but also somehow hopeful. She believes in us."  
"In you."  
He nodded. "In me. And Angela does, too."  
Zack made a noise of understanding. "You and Dr. Brennan feel the same and that connects you despite the distance."  
Booth put his hand on his shoulder. "Very good, Zack. That`s exactly it."  
Cam smiled. "Bones would be very confused by the mood in here."  
"Yes," he replied with a smile. "She would be." Tears glittered in his eyes as he turned towards the door. "And I would love to explain the whole thing to her."  
He spent two hours just walking around the Jeffersonian. He talked to nobody, kept thinking about Bones. He could practically see her hurrying through the hallways, solving a case. When Angela asked him to come to her lab, he did. He met the others there.  
"I don`t know if what I did is okay, but I couldn`t help myself." She started her 3D imaging projection and a picture of Bones appeared. She was sitting on the floor, her knees pulled to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. Her clothes were partially torn and there were tears on her cheeks. She looked just like in the picture. Angela had only airbrushed out the wounds and all the blood.  
Speechlessly, they all stared at the picture. It did not look so cruel now. It was still depressing to see her sit there on her own. But with the way her eyes looked hopefully at the people standing around her, this projection filled those people with exactly that hope. The hope that everything would end well.

Booth speechlessly stared at the projection. It took him several minutes to realize he was alone. The others were gone, had left him alone with her. He was infinitely grateful for that. Slowly, he pulled a chair towards the table above which the small projection was floating.  
"Temperance, I will find you. I´ve wanted to tell you that the whole time." She just sat there, unmoving. "I know where you are right now is hell. But I will find you. And I will get you out of there. This guy wants to break you but he won´t manage to do so. You can escape him and I will help you. He will never get his hands on you ever again as soon as I get you back." He lowered his gaze for a moment or two, fighting an internal struggle. Finally he stared directly into the eyes of this technical marvel. "I love you, Temperance. I know this is the completely wrong moment for this realization and that I can`t tell you that right away once you are back. But it is the truth. I love you and I will help you to cope with being free again. This I swear to you." Slowly, he put his chinn on his hands and stared at her in silence as a lonely tear ran down his cheek.

YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
Why was he not coming?  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
The days passed. She was running out of food  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
Why didn`t he finally come?  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
She also had almost no water left and he knew it.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
Had he given up? Would he be unable to save her this time?  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
She was so afraid of him, but right now she wished he was here.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
"Booth," she quietly whispered while tears ran down her cheeks. "Did you forget me?"  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
Where was Giorgio? He knew she was waiting for him.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.

"Yes!," Hodgins called, ripping everyone from their thoughts. "Booth, Booth! He`s getting out!"  
"What? Who? Angeles?" Booth`s heart leapt right into his throat.  
"Yes," Hodgins said happily. His face glowed with pride. "I did it!"  
"How?" Angela stepped next to him. "How do you get a mass murderer out of prison?"  
"That`s the wrong question, honey. The right question is: how do you influence a judge to let a mass murderer out on bail? The answer: Power or money. And even though I never wanted to, I`ve got both."  
"You used your family`s contacts? For a man like him?"  
"No, Booth. I did it for Bones. Only for her. I simply reminded a few people of how horrible it would be if anyone had to justify simply having sacrificed her life like that. Your boss wants to talk to you. and then we will fly to Austin and follow this guy wherever he goes."  
Booth hugged Hodgins, engaging in a competition for the widest grin with him. "You are brilliant. Simply brilliant. Thank you, Hodgins. I will never forget that." He paused ."How much?," he then asked.  
The scientist struggled for a moment. He did not like talking about money. "100 million dollar bail. It was a symbolic sum and I think the judge thought no one would pay that much."  
The people in Angela`s office, which had become the new meeting point for everyone because this was where Bones was, audibly gasped. "So much money," Zack sighed.  
"I would have spent ten times that much, Zack. And for the first time in my life I am glad that I am actually able to do so."  
Booth left the room with a smile. He called his boss, who loudly admonished him and threatend him with the end of his career in case Giorgio Angeles managed to escape.  
"I will bring him back," Booth promised. "I just don`t know how ..."  
"Did I say anything about that? I just want him back. I don´t give a damn if he is dead or alive."  
"Understood. When does he get out?"  
"Tomorrow at noon. And we talked to his former boss. He will take him back. He talked to the inhabitants of the camp and they know what is at stake. No one will hurt him. But now it is your game, Booth. He is yours. Now find Dr. Brennan."

The weather had put a spoke in their wheel and given Giorgio a head start. Booth and Hodgins had reached Austin too late and he had not yet reported to the camp. But Booth was sure that Giorgio would come to the camp to work there. He liked this game way too much. That was why they had moved back into their old rooms with Briggs` permission. Now all they could do was hope that the escapees remained calm.

YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
He grinned when he heard his own voice. The sentence resounded in the room over and over again. After a few minutes it got annoying. He went and switched the player off. Then he slowly returned to his victim. When he switched on the light, she flinched, blinking several times and pulling her jacket over her eyes because she could not stand the brightness.  
"You can´t escape me," she whispered. Her hands were playing with a bone in an evidence bag. And the little plastic tie he had used to tie her up kept sliding through her fingers.  
"No, you can´t escape me," he said. She flinched again, then simply kept playing. "Did you miss me, little doctor?," he asked and pulled the jacket away from her. She held her hands in front of her eyes and the bag fell into her lab. When he forcefully pulled her hands away from her face, she shut her eyes tightly and groaned. "Come on, get a grip! Look at me. Now."  
"You can`t escape me," she whispered.

He grinned and waited until she had gotten used to the light. To tease her a little, he told her about his time in prison. "And then your dear colleague Booth apparently did something and now I am free despite overwhelming evidence and confessing to 37 murders. He really is a hero."  
"You can`t ..." She paused, her eyelids fluttering. "Booth?"  
"Yes, Special Agent Seeley Booth. Do you miss him as much as he misses you?"  
She nodded, but her eyes were dazed and she seemed deeply lost in thought. He noticed the lacerations on her head, the strange way she held her right arm.  
"What did you do, you stupid girl? Were you trying to run through the wall with your head first?" He laughed.  
"You can`t escape me," she whispered again and stared down at the bone.  
He reached for it to get a better look and noticed how she fearfully crawled further back against the wall, although that was hardly possible. "So you do still react," he quietly said and raised his hand to push the hair back from her face. She turned her head toward the wall, trying to escape his touch that way. "Good to know." With a grin, he got up, put two bread rolls on the floor for her and left. When he turned around, she was once more playing with the bone in the bag. He shut off the light and left the anthropologist alone in her darkness.

Bones had barely taken note of his visit. She had only been fully aware twice. Once when he had mentioned Booth and once more when he had touched her. The rest of the time she had retreated deep into her mind. She had struggled against it for a long time, had really fought. For her hope, for her belief. But this one sentence had erased everything. Over time, everything had faded away. Booth`s face, which she had imagined every night in her prison, had become blurry. She could no longer believe that he would find her. After all, Giorgio had said that she could not escape him. He would find her everywhere, anytime. And bring her back. And punish her. Maybe it would be best for her to just be calm and stay with him. Maybe she could survive for longer that way. Maybe he would not hurt her that badly any more.

The day went past slowly. It was hell for Booth and Hodgins to see the smiling killer and kidnapper walk around freely. The other guards kept out of the man´s way as much as possible. The one who had helped Giorgio Angeles had killed himself a few days ago.  
The inhabitants of the camp stayed away, too. Maria had forbidden them to cause trouble to save the anthropologist. When some of them argued, the old woman had reminded them what Dr. Brennan had been doing when she was abducted. She had tried to find the finger of the dead girl so she could give the complete skeleton back to her family.  
"A single finger," she had said. "That was so important to her she came back here. She respects every human, so you respect her, too."  
Booth was infinitely grateful to her. The thought of having to protect this man was horrible for him. But thanks to Maria, luckily that was not necessary. He was safe here in the camp.  
Hodgins sat in the car, ranting. "Why do you think they will let us pass today?"  
"New strategy," Booth said. "Just keep your mouth shut."  
"I`ll make myself invisible if I need to in order to save her life." He pointed toward the picture Booth had fastened to the dashboard.  
When they had last tried to follow Angeles, they had been stopped at the border to Mexico. When they had found Booth`s weapon, they had been arrested. They had spent a whole day in prison before a very contrite looking chief of police had let them out, apologizing multiple times.  
"Why did you almost go for his throat earlier? What did he say to you?"  
Booth pressed his lips together hard. "He said Bones is cute."  
Hodgins nodded in silence and went back to staring ahead. In front of them was the border. It was a different guard than last time. That could be a good thing, but not necessarily. Giorgio´s car drove to the other side, one arm waved out of the window and he put his foot down on the gas.  
Booth slowly rolled toward the barrier and handed his badge and Hodgins` ID to the guard. "We`re in a hurry. The man who just passed through is a mass murderer who is out on bail."  
"A mass murderer? He`s security guard in the camp."  
Hodgins watched the car go around a corner and disappear out of his line of sight. "And he is gone."  
"Be quiet." Booth turned back to the man in uniform. "How do you know?"  
"We exchange two or three sentences every day I`m on duty. In three years, that accumulated to a lot."  
"Did he ever mention something about where he lives?"  
The man thought about it. "And he really is a mass murderer? Are you sure?"  
"Think about it, man! He killed 37 women. Thirty seven. He already confessed."  
"Why is he out, then?," the guard asked, his questions gnawing at Booth`s already very thin nerves.  
"Because he has kidnapped a woman and no deskjockey wants to be responsible for her death. And if you ask me one more question, you will be the one responsible."  
He flinched. "I`m sorry. Ten miles southwest of here is an old military area. You aren`t allowed there, though, and the road leading to it is blocked. I have no idea how he gets through, but he does. In the southern part of the area there are some shanties and as far as he told me, he lives in one of them."  
Booth took the picutre. "Look at this room, even though it is hard not to see the woman. Where could this room be?"  
Horrified, the guard looked at Bones, then the grey, smooth walls. "Maybe one of the bunkers."  
"Bunkers?" Dark, quiet. That´s what he had said. A bunker below ground. His body felt electrified.  
"Yes, there are some old nuclear bunkers. Right next to the shanties. I was allowed to look around there once. There are rooms in there that look exactly like this one."  
"And how do we get there?"  
The soldier thought about it for a moment and then indicated for Booth to follow him. "I`ve got a map inside, come with me. You have to circle the area. And be careful of the guards. Your badge is not worth anything here and those guys were not hired to talk. I don`t think the area around the bunker and the shanties is guarded well, but I can`t give you any guarantees."

Bones heard him approach. She didn`t look at him, kept playing with her bone. In her mind, she went through all the bones in the human body. The light was switched on, it made her eyes burn. He held one of the untouched bread rolls in front of her face, asked her something, hit her when she didn`t reply.  
She felt him roughly grab her arm and drag her away from the wall. He yelled at her when she kept mumbling the one sentence he had taught her, tore her hands away from her eyes. Images kept running through her head. Bones she named. One after the other, she happily named them all. She felt the hard floor beneath her, heard his voice again.  
YOU CAN`T ESCAPE ME.  
Had he really said that or had her brain simply memorized it like that? A punch hit her, blood trickling out of her nose as the bone broke. For a short moment, the pain ripped her out of her own world into which she had fled. He pushed her jacket aside which she had thrown over her head in a reflex once more. It landed on her right hand, remained there as he sat down on her stomach and looked down at her.  
She groaned lowly because he was so heavy, wanted to retreat back into her corner, but he held on to her. His hand grabbed her jaw, forcing her to look into his eyes.  
"Can you hear me, little doctor?," he asked her.  
She nodded slowly. "Yes," she breathed.  
"You are still far away. But don`t worry, I will drag you back into this world." His gaze bored into her eyes and made her shiver with fear.

They had been driving for half an hour, but thanks to the soldier`s directions they had finally reached their goal. Booth pulled the car up behind a hedge and waved for Hodgins to follow him.  
"Thanks, Booth," he said quietly.  
"I promised, remember? But stay behind me." His gun in hand, they krept toward the building which was surrounded by a simple wire fence. It was only a meter high and not a problem for the two men. The soldier suddenly approaching them was one, though.  
"Stop right there. Who are you?"  
"Special Agent Seeley Booth, FBI. I am following a murderer who might have hidden his next victim here."  
"This is a military area, señor. You have no business here."  
Hodgins looked at the man. He was at least sixty years old. Worn out uniform, an old gun. His hands shook and his posture showed he had no intention of endangering his life to chase away strangers. "May I try to bribe you?," he asked him directly.  
The man stared at the scientist. He laughed and lowered his gun. "You get one chance. Make me an offer I can`t refuse and I`ll go."  
"I just need to reach into my jacket pocket to get out my checkbook."  
"You`ve got one of those?," Booth asked, lowering his gun as well.  
"Of course." He pulled the book out of the inside pocket of his jacket and filled in one of the pages. "If you refuse, we will simply leave again and then you will have missed your chance."  
The man took the cheque, looked at it and his eyes grew wide. "Is it covered?"  
"Absolutely."  
He folded it in half, pocketed it and turned around. He left the gun lying in the grass. "I think I`ll move to the states. I`m sure they`ll love to take me in with two million dollars."  
Booth looked at Hodgins in surprise, then smiled. "Thanks for doing all this for Bones."  
"It`s just money. And if we manage to find her, it is very well-invested money."

Tears were running down her face as she slowly crawled back into her corner. A trail of drops of blood remained on the floor, the jacket sliding over it, still covering her hand. Her eyes were clear now, and wide with fear and pain.  
"What made you stupidly decide to fight me? You were being such a good girl up to now." Giorgio shook his head and stared at her with his cold eyes. "But, oh well, you will learn. And if you don`t, I`ll beat it into your clever head."  
Sobbing, she pulled her knees up to her chest and watched him as he walked towards the door. Despite the pain, she raised her hand, the jacket sliding away. And when Giorgio turned around to verbally put the boot in once more, he found himself looking down the barrel of his own gun.  
In his confusion, his hands tapped along his hip where his gun was supposed to be, but of course it wasn`t there. He had it right in front of his eyes, after all. "Hey, stay calm, little doctor. You are way too weak to shoot."  
The bang resounded in the room, down the hallway and outside.

And it reached the ears of the two searching men. They ran in the right direction, found the stairs that lead down into the bunker. The door was open, otherwise they would not have heard a thing. Booth was the first to go in. He pushed the door open, saw the long hallway and heard a distant groan.  
"Bones!," he yelled and broke into a run.

"You can`t escape me," she murmured. Her hands held the gun, her eyes held his gaze. He was lying on the floor, right in front of the door. Blood oozed out of the gunshot wound in his stomach, running over his cramped fingers and onto the floor, and his face was a mask of pain.  
"You little bitch," he gasped and groaned. "I`ll kill you."  
"You can`t escape me." She wanted to stand up and walk out, but he was blocking the door. She would have to step over him. But she could not do it, not even with all the will in the world. And to pull the trigger again? She did not know if she still had any bullets. If she didn`t, he would only hear the quiet click and then he would know that she was helpless, as well. And if she still had bullets and missed? Hope had kept her alive so far and hope had made her pay attention to the gun he had completely forgotten as she was in the worst kind of pain. It had slipped from the pocket of his pants, right next to the jacket that covered her hand. She had only had to take it, drag it underneath the jacket. That had been all. Take it and then wait.  
She almost jumped out of her skin when he groaned and reached out for her. In panic, she crawled further back against the wall. "You won`t escape me," she whispered when he groaned loudly in pain.  
"Bones!"  
She heard the scream. Had heard it so often in the past days and weeks. But it was not real. Booth was far away. Steps quickly approached her prison. Were more people coming? Friends of Giorgio`s? The men who had also tormented his other victims? Did they want to have her, too? The pain made tears spring to her eyes as she slowly raised the gun and aimed it at the crack of the door.

Booth burst into the room and almost stumbled over Giorgio. Hastily, he jumped up and found himself standing between him and ... Bones. The sight of her hit hime like a sledgehammer. She was sitting in the corner, her gaze apathic. Her clothes were torn and bloody in places, her face smeared with blood. Her nose was broken, the upper lip burst. Her right eye was swollen almost completely closed. But she was holding a gun and aiming it in his direction.  
"Temperance, it`s me. Booth. Please put the gun down." He approached her slowly, saw the panic flickering in her eyes. Her finger shook on the trigger. "Please, Temperance, put the gun down." He kept approaching her until he was finally crouching right in front of her. She was still aiming at him, but she had not pulled the trigger. He wanted to reach for the gun when she tilted it to the side ever so slightly and aimed it back at her kidnapper.  
"You can`t escape me," she mumbled.  
"Yes, you can escape him. We will go out of here now. The two of us. And this guy will go to prison."  
"You can`t escape me."  
He wanted to reach for her face to push a strand of her hair back, but she let out a scream. Hastily, he drew his hand back and leaned against the wall next to her instead. He looked at Hodgins helplessly, who was bent over Giordion, feeling for his pulse. "He`ll bleed out if he doesn`t get medical attention soon." He raised his shoulders. "Could be worse." He refused to look at Bones. Of course he was glad they had finally found her, but this broken creature crouched against the wall had not much in common with his boss.  
"You can`t escape me," she whispered again.  
Booth noticed the change in her voice, saw the tears that ran down her cheeks, mixing with her blood before they dripped onto her upper body. "Temperance, come back to me," he pleaded with her, consciously using her first name to establish a connection to her. "I am so incredibly sorry it took me so long to find you. But you can´t really have given up on the thought that I would come to save you, can you? I would never leave you hanging. Please, let me help you."  
"No one can help," she whispered. "I can`t escape him."  
His head jerked upward and he looked into her eyes. "Come on, keep fighting. I know you understand me. Use your brilliant mind if your feelings are putting a spoke in your wheel."  
"He will always find me."  
Her set eyes and the helplessly whispered words made Booth angry. More angry than he had ever been over the course of the past few weeks. "You can`t give up now. You have never given up before. That`s not your style. Temperance Brennan does not give up. She drives into a camp where a man works she`s afraid of because of a single finger. That is my Temperance. That is who you are."  
She blinked. "Dira." She let go of the gun with one hand and reached for the finger she had found. "Her finger."  
Booth took it. "See? You found it. Now let`s go."  
"No," she said. Louder, more panicked. "He will find me. He will find me again." She looked at Booth for a moment. "Don`t you understand that? As long as he is alive, he will find me."  
"He will go to prison and death row," Booth assured her. "Your great team has found all the evidence needed to convict him. He will be executed."  
"When?," she asked accusingly.  
Booth stayed silent. If they were lucky, then in five or maybe in ten years. Maybe never. Slowly, he started to understand her dilemma. This man had brainwashed her into believing that she would never be safe from him. And if he took the gun away from her now and forced her to leave, she would not only be afraid of Giorgio Angeles for years, but also of him. Slowy, he nodded and raised his gaze. "Hodgins, please get out of here. And if anyone asks you about it later, you will tell him you never were in here. You don`t know what happened because you had to stay at the entrance to watch my back. Go get the gun of the guard and wait outside."  
He opened his mouth, then nodded and quietly said: "Bring her back." Then he turned around and left.  
Booth stared at Bones from the side for a while, then carefully sidled up behind her. She was crying with fear, but most of her focus was still on the man lying on the floor who was groaning lowly. "Come on, get up, Temperance. Come, get up. You should be standing. Face your enemy standing on your own two feet. Upright and sure."  
She let him help her to her feet, but her body was so weak and shaking she swayed. When he wrapped his arms around her from behind, she sobbed in fear.  
"Don`t be afraid, Temperance. Don`t be afraid. I won`t hurt you. You know that. I haven ever hurt you and would never ever do it. Do you understand me? Booth won`t hurt you."  
"Booth?," she whispered his name for the first time.  
"Yes, my love. It`s me. And now we will make sure that you can escape him."  
"No," she said quietly. "I can`t escape him, Booth. He will find me anywhere."  
"In a few moments, he won`t anymore." Carefully, he let his head rest on her shoulder. His hands slid down her arms and rested on her own hands. His fingers covered hers. Finally, he pushed his index finger over the trigger. "I want you to be free. And we both know there is only one way."  
"Yes," she breathed. "We both."  
"Together."  
She clung to him. "As always."  
Booth nodded slightly and whispered into her ear. "Look at him, Temperance. Look into his eyes. You will see the lights go out when it`s over. Then you will feel that you are free." Slowly he raised her hand, aiming the gun at the head of the man lying on the ground. "Tell him what he told you. And look into his eyes. Feel his fear. He is not allmighty. He is not immortal. Look at him. Watch his last emotions. See his fear. He is afraid, of you."  
As she slowly bent her finger, she calmly said: "You can`t escape ME."

Once again he could not sleep. As had often happened over the past few nights. In the beginning, he had thought her rescue would mean a return to normalty, but instead he now had more to worry about than before. No, not more, that would be unfair in view of her suffering. Different worries, though. Bones had changed. In the beginning he had thought she didn`t exist anymore at all.  
After shooting Giorgio Angeles, she had finally dropped the weapon. Very carefully he had lifted her up and carried her out of there. When he stepped over the body, she had clung to him so tightly he had barely been able to breathe at all. Outside, Hodgins had been waiting for him and looked at him questioningly. He had silently asked him not to make him answer any questions. Hodgins had accepted that, as had everyone else in their environment.  
In the police report it later said that Bones had managed to overpower her kidnapper and had put two bullets into his body when fighting for the gun. No one was interested in more facts. The body of the serial killer was burned, the files closed, the DA´s office stopped the investigation of Bones` actions before the trial even started and without the attendance of the defendant on the basis of self defence. Booth could still hear the words of the cop who had been there when they had questioned Bones in the hospital. "If you physically and mentally abuse a woman like this and then allow her to get her hands on your weapon, this is how you end."  
He sighed quietly and turned around. She moved slightly next to him, he carefully pulled the covers further up around her shoulders. The moonlight shining into the room through his window made her hair glow slightly.  
She had spent three weeks in hospital. First in a small town close to the camp for the first care, then Hodgins had her brought to Washington in a private medical transport plane. Booth knew the medical records by heart. All this time he had been afraid this guy would sexually abuse her and the examinations had confirmed his worst fears. He had raped her. Once, according to the doctors. And shortly before he and Hodgins had rescued her.  
She moaned lowly and twisted around. Sweat gleamed on her forehead. He talked to her quietly without really waking her. When she had calmed down, she snuggled into his arms. And he lay there. Kept watch over her as he had done every day since she had been released from the hospital and he still felt as if he were not making any progress.

"What do you mean by not making any progress?" Angela looked at Booth questioningly.  
"She sleeps with me."  
"I know."  
"No, Angela. You don`t know. She sleeps in my bed. Since the first night after her release from the hospital when she moved in with me because she was afraid of being alone in her apartment."  
The woman looked at Booth censoriously. "This pig hit, tormented and raped her. And you ..."  
He raised his hands in defiance. "What do you think of me?," he said indignantly. "The first night, she stood next to my bed, crying quietly. I lifted the covers and let her come to me, wrapped my arms around her and protected her. From then on, she came every night, she took it for granted. I swear I never touched her in any way. I hold her in my arms and quietly talk to her when she has nightmares."  
She looked at the floor. "I`m sorry. I didn´t want to imply anything."  
He took a deep breath. "It`s okay. But I can`t keep that up for much longer. She has been living with me for two months. She started working here again, as well as she did before. At work we get along perfectly fine, she´s almost like the old Bones. But as soon as we are alone, she gets quiet. Silent. She doesn`t talk to me about the things I would like to know and refuses to engange in innocuous topics we could otherwise talk about. When we are at my place, we don`t talk to each other." He looked at her desperately. "Do you get what I mean? I love this woman, I realized that when I thought I had lost her. I knew that I could not just spring this on her when she was back. But physically, we´re closer than we ever were. She is not scared of me at all, which would not be surprising considering her situation. But mentally, we`ve never been farthr apart than we are now. I`m afraid our friendship won´t survive this."  
"Wow," Angela said and slowly came closer. "For someone who doesn`t like to talk about his feelings, that was damn good." She smiled encouragingly at him and put her hands on his forearm. "Booth, she went through hell. And so did we. Each on his own, but it was the same hell. Someday, she will realize that she can talk to you and me about this hell and she will. But right now she only wants to talk about work-related things."  
"With you, too?"  
"With me, too. I am not even allowed to touch her. No one is. She doesn`t trust anyone as much as she trusts you. She seeks you out because you saved her. Probably exactly like she hoped you would for every second of her imprisonment. We simply have to wait for her to understand that it really is over."  
"I thought she had already realized that."  
"What do you mean?"  
Booth saw her confused gaze. "Nothing. It´s not important."  
"Okay." Angela shrugged. "I`m glad this guy is dead. At least she won`t have to be afraid of him any more."  
Now it was Booth´s turn to look confused. "I thought that´s what you meant when you said 'really over'?"  
"No. I meant her imprisonment on its own. The darkness and silence this guy forced her into. I don´t think she understood that she is out of this hole now. Maybe she is simply busy with rediscovering her senses." She sighed. "Damn it, psychology isn´t my thing."  
Booth gave her a quick hug. "Still, thank you. Thanks for the talk."  
"Tempe is my best friend and she sleeps in your bed despite what that guy did to her. You must be an incredibly nice and great man, otherwise she would have been back in her own apartment a long time ago. Otherwise she wouldn´t have come to you in the first place."

She was sitting in her office. Here, she felt comfortable. Here and in his apartment. Of course she felt how much her silence bothered him. He didn´t understand, wanted to talk to her. But what good was that supposed to do? He was a soldier, had personally told her about the men who had been to war and never talked about what they had gone through there. He had to understand that she did not want to go over every detail of her imprisonment with him. Every night she sat in that room again. Every night. As soon as it got dark outside, she ran through Booth`s apartment and switched on all the lights. She could no longer bear the darkness, could not even fall asleep without the lights on.  
She lowered her eyes and sighed. To be honest, she knew what bothered him. It were his own feelings which he had apparently discovered during her captivity and his fear for her. Feelings that had caused her to never even contemplate anyone else besides Booth to be her saviour. She had always known that he would be the one to get her out of there. He and no one else. It had taken longer than she had hoped. Four long weeks. But he had come. That was important. He had freed her. And when she had asked him after her release from hospital, he had taken her to his place. Since then, he protected her. Especially at night, when the nightmares came.  
The door was opened and someone entered her office. She closed her eyes. She knew the sound of his footsteps by now, as well as the quiet sigh with which he dropped onto the couch. Slowly, she raised her head and looked at him.  
He sat there, a picture of misery, but somehow he looked better than he had this morning. He had probably talked to Angela. She had probably told him to simply wait. Probably. One of the new words her captivity had taught her, as well as hope and belief. Those were the things she had learned.  
"Booth," she said quietly.  
He knew that tone. It was her new tone. The one he could hardly bear because her voice sounded so pained. It was the tone she only ever allowed him to hear because everyone else would start asking questions right away. He looked at her for a moment to let her know he was listening if she had anything to say. "Do you want me to move out?"  
"No," he said immediately and got up. He approached her desk and then stopped behind it. "I don`t want you to leave. Or do you?"  
"No." She smiled. "But I also don`t want to use you."  
"You do-" He fell silent for a moment, thought about it. "You don`t. I am always here for you."  
Slowly, she raised her hand; her shoulder still hurt a little. She felt him put his hands in hers and was glad once more that she could still trust him. That this guy had at least been unable to destroy this feeling. "I`m sorry, Booth. I know my silence bothers you." She saw him nod. "But I can´t talk right now. It has been almost three months since I got out of there. That sounds like a long time, I know. But for me it isn`t. If you want your nights to be your own again, I understand. I do notice that you barely sleep. But right now I can`t talk to you about what happened."  
His thumb moved across the back of her hand. "Right now?," he asked hopefully.  
"Right now. Just give me a little more time."  
Slowly, he nodded. "Okay. And about the nights ... my nights are yours, Temperance." He looked down at her, smiled sheepishly. "They have been yours for quite some time, now."  
She returned his smile, watched as he left and turned at the door. She waved at him. Then, her face grew serious. "I can´t talk about it yet," she quietly said to herself. "But soon I will have to." Her gaze moved across the file she had been working on, across the keyboard and down to the still open desk drawer.  
Tears glittered in her eyes as she turned to look after him through the glass door. "I need you, Booth. Soon more than ever."  
Her gaze fell back onto the drawer. When he had come in, she had pushed it slightly more closed with her leg. Now she opened it once more and sorted through the things inside. She carefully pushed the papers back into their old place, hid the small plastic test with the two pink crosses. Hid the explanation for why her imprisonment did not relinguish its hold on her, why she could not come to terms with it.  
To come to terms with something, you had to start putting it behind you. And you could only put your past behind you.  
And that was exactly where the problem lay. Because her imprisonment and everything that had happened to her during that time was not her past. It was her future.

The END


End file.
